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Expanded archive listing

Moderator Availability (edit)

Moderator	Current Availability	Time Zone
Ahasuerus – Talk	Daily. Mostly working on automated submissions and the software.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Alvonruff – Talk	Daily. Working on a major overhaul of the isfdb infrastructure, staged at isfdb2.org. Self-moderating only.	US Central (UTC-6)
Annie Yotova: Annie - Talk	Most days, wildly varying hours. Leave a message on my page if you need me.	US Mountain/AZ (UTC-7)
Chris Jensen: Chris J - Talk	Available sometime everyday.	Pacific (UTC+12)
Desmond Warzel: Dwarzel - Talk	Most days, wildly varying hours.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Dirk P Broer: Dirk P Broer - Talk	Self-moderating only.	Netherlands (UTC+2)
Jens: Hitspacebar - Talk	Self-moderating only.	Germany (UTC+2)
JLaTondre - Talk	Intermittent, mainly evenings.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
John: JLochhas - Talk	Intermittent, mainly evenings and weekends.	Germany (UTC+2)
Kraang - Talk	Most evenings	CDN Eastern (UTC-5)
Dominique Fournier: Linguist - Talk	Off and on most days, with occasional blackouts (like now); can help on French or other outlandish titles.	France (UTC+1)
Marc Kupper: Marc Kupper – Talk	Low but not quite zero	US Pacific (UTC-8)
MagicUnk - Talk	Intermittent. Occasionally going into an editing frenzy.	Belgium (UTC+2)
MartyD - Talk	Sporadic, but most days.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Mhhutchins - Talk	Self-moderating only	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Nihonjoe - Talk	Weekdays. Sometimes evenings and weekends.	US Mountain (UTC-6/-7)
Pete Young: PeteYoung - Talk	Most days, although time zone frequently varies.	UK (UTC)
Ron Maas Rtrace - Talk	Most mornings and evenings.	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Rudolf: Rudam - Talk	intermittent	Germany (UTC+2)
John: Scifibones - Talk	Most days, some evenings,	US Eastern (UTC-5)
Willem Hettinga: Willem H. - Talk	Sporadic, and self-moderating only. I try to visit this site most days.	Netherlands (UTC+2)

Currently unavailable

• Dcarson (Dana Carson) - Talk - Not seen since 2021-02-20 (marked inactive). US Eastern (UTC-5)

Blazer & Soulseer

Been adding a number of items and now have been going back to fill in the other versions (hc, audio etc). However I had two items Blazer (Records 3422931 & 1046102) & Soulseer (Records 3422929 & 1046101) where the publication date was not what I originally put in and I had to fix it. I don't want to continue with these two until they are updated. Figured out what happened, the autofill. It tried to get me on another one but I caught it in the act. aardvark7 (talk) 15:13, 1 March 2025 (EST)

I don't see any current edits from you in the list of submissions awaiting approval, so it appears this has been done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:13, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

Question of policy

I usually like to add the cover image to the database as outside links can be broken or changed. Many times the tp, hc and ebook all seem to have the same cover. If you try to add all, even with different titles, the Database comes back as says its already on file. I guess you could copy/paste the file link to all the entries but what is the proper policy/proceedure?? aardvark7 (talk) 15:20, 1 March 2025 (EST)

If they all have the same cover (make sure, as there can sometimes be subtle differences, especially with ebook covers), it's perfectly fine for them to all use the same cover image that's been uploaded to ISFDB. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 10:55, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Phishing Email

A caution, I received the following email titled: Fwd:Purchase summary on 03 March 2025 by Jeffery Juniper, addressed to the isfdb moderators group email.Rkihara (talk) 15:07, 3 March 2025 (EST)

There's a group email? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:22, 3 March 2025 (EST)

There was a Gmail-based one a long time ago, but it has been inactive for the last 10+ years. Apparently someone is trying to abuse it. Ahasuerus (talk) 15:49, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Mick van Houten (Houton)... Error Somewhere?

I have recently made several edits relating to K. J. Parker's Colours in the Steel. The last of these edits has been approved so I was looking through all the related records to check everything looks ok... but it does not. I made this submission to make cover artist Mick van Houton an alternate name of Mick van Houten. I'm sure this looked ok after approval but now, Houton's record does not state "Used As Alternate Name By:" and Houten's record does not include Houton in the list of "Used These Alternate Names:". However, "Colours in the Steel (1998) [only as by Mick van Houton] " does appear in Houten's list of Cover Art.
The plot thickens because, looking at the Raw XML View of my make alternate name submission, Houton had record number 394693 but he now has record number 395554.
As there is no edit history for authors, my investigation has ground to a halt. Could a moderator please look into this and advise what has happened? Teallach (talk) 18:43, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Mick van Houton needed to be made and alternate name for Mick van Houten. I've taken care of it.

I see what happened now. Look at the Coverart record edit history for Colours in the Steel. Zapp decided your change was incorrect. He reverted the credit back to Mick van Houten. This effectively deleted author 394693. One minute later, he reversed his change. The software created a new Mick van Houton author record, number 395554. This new record had to be made an alternate, which I have now done. I assume, Zapp did not communicate with you as required. John Scifibones 19:15, 3 March 2025 (EST)

Your assumption is correct. Zapp did not communicate with me. I have issued another post on his talk page. Teallach (talk) 18:33, 4 March 2025 (EST)

R A Garnett

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?395865; Initials need a space between them so as to fit with other works by the artist and not lose bio info; I left PV a note about uploading a real cover (and adding the price). --Username (talk) 10:13, 4 March 2025 (EST)

Fixed here. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:18, 4 March 2025 (EST)

Authors with extraneous spaces in disambiguation date ranges

(Posting this to Moderator noticeboard, given that only mods can alter author names; will happily repost to Community Portal and/or Rules and Standards if this is considered non-trivial or needing wider discussion)

I noticed on the Authors Born On This Day section of the homepage that there's a record for "Gordon Cooper (1927 - 2004)". Help:How_to_separate_two_authors_with_the_same_name doesn't explicitly say how these disambiguation year ranges should be entered, but having spaces is (a) inconsistent with how they are formatted just to the right of the name on that section, (b) probably much less common than the spaceless-version and (c) debatably less aesthetically pleasing.

Here are links to all the author records that have these spaces in the author name field, if it's deemed preferable to remove them:

• John Davidson (1857 - 1909)
• John Hamilton (1959 - )
• Voltaire (1967 - )
• John Davidson (1944 - )
• Anthony Adams (1933 - )
• David Saunders (1954 - )
• Gordon Cooper (1927 - 2004)
• Andreas Müller (1984 - )
• Richard Haigh (1924 - 1991)
• Alan Marshall (1902 - 1984)
• Andreas Müller (1973 - )

ErsatzCulture (talk) 14:13, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Checking the database, I see that we have 258 author records which use "(YYYY-YYYY)" to disambiguate author names. I agree that we should make the 11 "(YYYY - YYYY)" authors listed above use the "(YYYY-YYYY)" pattern. Ahasuerus (talk) 17:06, 6 March 2025 (EST)

All fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:22, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 22:32, 6 March 2025 (EST)

Thanks both! ErsatzCulture (talk) 05:01, 7 March 2025 (EST)

LRR

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?66264; I've been adding archived links to some Third Alternative issues today and Simpson's story has an "&" in its title as does the TTA anthology cover while The Weird anthology titles it with an "and"; since the Silver Web issue was edited by a co-editor of The Weird I assume it has "and" there, too. So US is "and", UK is "&". Probably an unmerge and variant would be in order. --Username (talk) 19:21, 8 March 2025 (EST)

Frank Edwards

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?21323; Story author almost certainly not the same as the Edwards who wrote a bunch of "non-fiction" UFO books and other similar stuff. --Username (talk) 09:20, 10 March 2025 (EDT)

I submitted a differentiation (but you could have done it also, Username!). Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:32, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

But then wouldn't author info have been lost, Stonecreek? Isn't that why mods need to change names, Stonecreek? I know you're not a mod anymore so maybe you should leave it to one of them, Stonecreek. --Username (talk) 07:42, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

If it's just splitting the works between two authors with the same name, so there are some works with each, then no author info would be lost. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 10:53, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Robert Black

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?188821; While adding info for some of his books I stumbled on the fact that Death Angel is not by Holdstock; https://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/7211/robert-black-death-angel. The late Black needs a separate record. --Username (talk) 00:05, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

I agree. I've changed it to be by Robert Black (III) as I don't know if it's one of the three other existing Robert Blacks. I removed the variant title, too. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:34, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

High Hunt

Looking for something entirely different, I came across the 1986 cover of High Cross (Record # 17039). I also came across another cover that looks to have the same number (32887)but has a cover price of $4.95 also giving the cover artist of Cliff Miller (www.murrayewing.co.uk/mewsings/2025/03/01/high-hunt-by-david-eddings/_). Other than this also being a Ballantine book, I don't know when it came out. Should I add it?? aardvark7 (talk) 13:11, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

If it's not in the database, yes. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:37, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Uploaded wrong image

Sorry uploaded wrong image for the above title. Can this be deleted/removed? Location: https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:THCMPLTCHD1998.jpg
ReadingMovies (talk) 14:04, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:36, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Mad Max 2 Translation Help

I have made my first attempt to add a translated work and followed the wiki advice page. Main source is this Internet Archive page which shows a 13 digit barcode for a 1983 book which I entered as is, but of course this has flagged up for being a pre 2005 work with wrong ISBN. Is this still ok or should I have used the shorter ISBN say from WorldCat (although this is not on the printed book)? Many thanks for your help. | ReadingMovies (talk) 19:10, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Perhaps the number at the bottom of the barcode section is an "EAN", i.e. a European Article Number aka International Article Number. The linked Wikipedia article says that EANs began using the "978" prefix for books in the 1980s, but I don't know if they were already being used in France in 1983. Hopefully someone with more experience with French books will chime in and clarify. Ahasuerus (talk) 19:30, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

You are probably right regarding the EAN. I have checked other J'ai'Lu pubs and they all appear to have ISBNs starting with "22..." which this pub has under WorldCat. Should this edit gets approved I will change the ISBN to the shorter one on WorldCat. The main editor of the J'ai'Lu pubs appears to be one Linguist, so I will leave a message on their talk page for help. |ReadingMovies (talk) 19:56, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

159 pages; last page is unnumbered. --Username (talk) 19:43, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

Thanks. I have no access to all the pages. I will correct it in a further edit. |ReadingMovies (talk) 19:56, 12 March 2025 (EDT)

The submission has been approved. The following changes have been made as per the discussion above:

• Changed the ISBN value to "2-277-21533-3"
• Changed the page count to 159
• Turned the translated title into a variant of the 1982 original.

Please feel free to tweak it further. Thanks! Ahasuerus (talk) 08:49, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Thanks for finishing the edit. I was aiming to add the variant link in stage two - saved me the trouble. Discovered this edition when adding reviews for this edit. Will add review link when approved. I will leave the "tweaking" to a PV as I only know as much as the Internet Arch link. Many thanks! |ReadingMovies (talk) 08:58, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Change to publication verified by absent member

I am changing the format of this publication of The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny from PB to HC. Faber rarely did PB, they did the previous and following books of the series in HC and the image suggests HC. The sole verifier (Biomassbob) is deceased. ../Doug H (talk) 15:11, 13 March 2025 (EDT)

Graphic Novel Question

I'd like to ask for additional opinions of this submission which I've put on hold. Our policy page defines speculative fiction to exclude graphic novels. However, I am aware that many graphic novels have been allowed in the database (e.g. this series). Our policy does allow for non-speculative book length works published by author's above the threshold. I've looked at the Amazon preview of this graphic novel and Le Guin is the main author credit on the title page. Although, the title page also states "Adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham". The copyright page bears Le Guin's 1968 copyright for the text. Since Fordham has an illustrator credit, I have to assume that he altered the text in some way. However, I checked the first few pages and they appear to be text directly from Le Guin's novel with significant excisions. Would others recommend approving this submission? I am aware of other problems with the submission, i.e. It's doubtful that it is novel length; the use of Roman numbers for unnumbered page count; the content on the unnumbered pages being listed only in notes and again with Roman numerals that aren't present; not marked non-genre (though if graphic format is not speculative by our policy, all graphic format works would be non-genre). What are other moderators thoughts on this? Thanks. --Ron ~ Rtrace^Talk 17:44, 17 March 2025 (EDT)

I do think it'd be includable: surely Le Guin is as important for us as Gaiman. But if it's only of shortfiction length and Le Guin is the one credited, I think it should be entered as a CHAPBOOK and then varianted to a parent including the artist as co-author. Christian Stonecreek (talk) 02:46, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

I think it is comparable to this Octavia Butler graphic novel. That means Fred Fordham should be co-author, no separate interior art title is needed and certainly no varianting to the original novel. The Amazon preview (titlepage) has the title as "A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel". Perhaps our policy of the graphic format should be re-evaluated. --Willem (talk) 08:19, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

I would definitely include it. Did Fordham write any of the content, or only abridge it? If he only abridged it, I wouldn't list him as an author, but I would note that in the Title note and Publication note. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:28, 18 March 2025 (EDT)

uploaded wrong cover

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:CRWFLLCDCV2021.jpg

Can a mod please delete this cover. cheers - Gaz Faustus (talk) 13:08, 19 March 2025 (EDT)

Deleted. FYI; the correct image can be uploaded without first deleting the wrong image. Simply use the "Upload a new version of this file" link. John Scifibones

cheers i've not got the cover for that book, the uploaded cover is for a different publication (2nd printing). Gaz Faustus (talk) 14:37, 19 March 2025 (EDT)

Mozart

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?100697; Should he be deleted? He has no contents. --Username (talk) 18:06, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

My guess is that there's a review somewhere that connects to it. Yes, it looks like it's this review. It would be awesome to have some sort of link or something on the profile that showed those. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:10, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

And here's the review (bottom of second column on p.99, continuing at top of p.100). It mentions Mozart, and makes some comments about the opera and its music, then discusses how much better the English translation of the lyrics by Auden and Kallman is compared to the original German lyrics. So, it's a bit of a review of both the music by Mozart and the translation by Auden and Kallman. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:21, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

Reviews of ineligible works are supposed to be entered as essays, not reviews. If this is just for the music, then it should be an essay. If the lyrics were published as a book, then the book would probably be eligible and should be entered. -- JLaTondre (talk) 11:28, 21 March 2025 (EDT)

It's a fantasy opera, so it's definitely eligible if it's published in some fashion. The question is whether the review is of the book or of the opera. Having read the review (link above), it appears to be a review of both the music by Mozart and the translated lyrics published as a book. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:36, 21 March 2025 (EDT)

Mark Joseph

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/se.cgi?arg=mark+jose&type=Name; First 2 guys are the same; archived link I added to Mexico 21 says his first novel was To Kill the Potemkin. He also has a Wikipedia page. --Username (talk) 19:50, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

Updated. They are all at this one now. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:06, 20 March 2025 (EDT)

eBooks

Are there different types of eBooks and do we care?? I am coming across eBooks (Barnes & Noble) that have an ISBN number but no ASIN, but the same title from Amazon (Kindle, has an ASIN but no ISBN. How should these be entered?? aardvark7 (talk) 16:21, 1 April 2025 (EDT)

Depends if they are really different. Barnes and Nobles book will never have an ASIN in their system because this is an Amazon only number. Kindle books often have both ASIN and ISBN (even if Amazon makes the ISBN almost impossible to find - it is often at the end of the book so even Look Inside does not help). In general, if they are the same book but just in different format (epub vs mobi and so on), we add just one book with the ISBN and ASIN and any other identifier added to it and add the sources we have in the notes. If they are materially different, we record both as separate entries. Most publishers use eISBN (which does not exist in theory but is very much used in practice) and use it across all their formats - showing it or not depending on what is needed... Annie (talk) 18:16, 1 April 2025 (EDT)

wrong cover

https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:LNGCLDNHLL1966.jpg

can a mod delete this cover please its the wrong one for this edition - Faustus (talk) 14:05, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

Done. -- JLaTondre (talk) 14:16, 6 April 2025 (EDT)

Variants

I need other eyes to look at the 2 next-to-last messages on Dirk's board, am I missing something, I'm trying to merge Can These Stones Speak with Can These Stones Speak? because a copy of Sweet Singers was uploaded and it has the question mark, too, also John R. Pierce is J. R. Pierce in the Hale Nova 1 just like the others, a lot of these false variant name/title things were added years ago, I've fixed a lot of them, these are acceptable and understandable, right? --Username (talk) 18:59, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

How so "false variant name/title things"? Just because you find another name or title in one of the editions, every name or title has to be changed in all editions to the one you have in hand?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:38, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Can I have a list of these merges to check if the same mistakes have been made before?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:39, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Username wants to merge variants with title records that have a variant title and/or author, and does not seem to be able to grasp the difference between a title and a publication.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:23, 10 April 2025 (EDT)

I'm still not getting it. Leaving aside the name merge for a moment, the title merge seems very obvious to me. The Sweet Singers has the title of the story with a question mark at the end so all titles should be, after my edit, in the same record with a 1953 date. It might help if someone would approve the Nova 1 and Sweet Singers edits I made and actually search inside the archived copies to see that the name is J. R. Pierce in Nova and the story in Sweet Singers has a question mark. I've done countless merges of this type of thing, some other editor(s) long ago adding many false variants because they were going off sites like philsp.com, I suppose, where they lump stories by an author under one name and/or have many title (and other) errors, which have been approved so I'm not sure what's wrong in these cases. I'm trying to get all instances of the story under J. R. Pierce and all instances of the Dickinson title in the record that has the question mark. How else to do that if not merging? --Username (talk) 01:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

That is exactly what I did and I reported to you that my Sphere copy has J. R. Pierce (as has the Delacorte, check archive.org).--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:29, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

And the Dell too.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:33, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

OK, I see my Nova 1 edit adding an archived link was approved; it's a recent upload with no borrowing allowed (and for some reason for the last few days clicking on searched pages of books on Archive.org won't take you there unless it's the front/back covers or the first few pages they offer in the preview, hopefully this is temporary and not a new policy they've implemented). Contents page seems to be missing (or maybe there wasn't one) but searching for Pierce gets 1 hit for John R. Pierce in his bio while J. R. Pierce gets 1 hit on the story's title page. On the plus side while looking into all this I found 5 other archived links for various books in the Nova series (1 of them the retitled Outdated Man) so I've added those in edits and also discovered that the note in the title record for the abridged Hale edition of Nova 1 is wrong because there were actually 4 stories removed, not 3, so I'll have to fix that, too. --Username (talk) 02:22, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

re the Can These Stones Speak? case: Dirk, you said "There are five publication records under the title record, only the 1963 one (the variant) has a question mark in the present database" on your talk page. Unless something has changed since you made that comment, you got it backwards. The Can These Stones Speak? variant is in 4 publications. The Can These Stones Speak parent is only in one publication (1953). If the 1953 publication also had a "?", then the merge is correct. Searching the IA scan [1], shows it does have the "?". -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:11, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

The IA scan has an interesting note My thanks are due to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for permission to reprint “‘’'The Sweet Singers ”? which first appeared in Blackwood’s Magazine, and to John Leng and D. C. Thomson Ltd. for permission to reprint ‘‘Can These Stones Speak?” which first appeared, under a different title, in The Scots Magazine.. What would have been that title?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:57, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Good catch. Based on the note, it is more likely that it appeared under a totally different title than simply the absence of the question mark. The question mark absence is more typical of secondary sources. Either way, we can only go with the data we have. I unrejected the merge, accepted it, and then added a title note stating the prior publication with an unknown title & date. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:53, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

It is the form of the rerquest: "Merge these" without any explanation about the former canonical and variant titles. I am not an approval machine.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Yes, Username's communication manner (both style and clarity) is problematic, but that doesn't make the submission wrong. -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

re The Higher Things case: This merge also looks valid. The John R. Pierce version is only in one pub. The IA scan (which Username added in another edit) shows that pub actually uses J. R. Pierce[2] like the other versions. Username's merge kept the J. R. Pierce so it would only have changed the one pub that needed changing. However, the resultant title record would have need to have been revarianted back to a John R. Pierce parent. I probably would have done an unmerge and then merged the new record to the variant in order to keep the existing parent but either way works. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:24, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Usernames'rejected merge would have removed all J. R. Pierce instances for this title, just because he found one John R. Pierce for the Hale SF edition.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 20:28, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

No, it would not. You are reading the merge backwards. It keeps "J. R. Pierce" (the green value) and removes "John R. Pierce" (the red value). -- JLaTondre (talk) 06:59, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Except that J. R. Pierce is the variant author name, so it will be replaced with John R. Pierce for the canonical title record.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 07:07, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dirk, take a look at this Help section: How merge works. It is a relatively recent addition to the Help notes and is an excellent explanation. Teallach (talk) 13:46, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

JLaTondre, Would you dare unreject the merge and try to find out what it causes? Be prepared for a lot of repair work afterwards....--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:34, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Rejected it once again note the exact affected records.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 05:52, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I unrejected it, merged it, and then varianted the result (as I said would need to be done above) to John R. Pierce. See the result where everything is fine. All solutions to solving required at least 2 edits (merge/variant, import/remove, add/merge/remove). But none break anything and require "a lot of repair work afterwards". -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:53, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

The result looks exact as I saw it eight hours ago, so what is preventing Username to start the complete circus yet again?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 13:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

It is not the same as before. The unverified pub that used to have it as by John R. Pierce now has it as by J. R. Pierce (matching the IA scan). The parent no longer has any pubs. -- JLaTondre (talk) 13:23, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

This is the real parent record (not the +2 version), looking just like the previous parent record did: the canonical name (John R. Pierce) with all publications under it, including those of the variant name (J. R. Pierce) as variant title. So Username can again merge those two titles because he thinks one of them is a fake variant -don't say I did not warn you!--Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:05, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I will make one last attempt, then I am going to drop it. As he states above, Username was fixing the issue where the one pub had John R. Pierce as the credit when it should really have been J. R. Pierce. The merge, following by a variant, is a valid method to resolve that. I have explained this several times and shown the difference in the database state pre- and post- change. Your link and my link are both the real parent. The +2 version shows that there is no longer a pub that has the canonical title. Username is not going to submit another merge as what he was trying to achieve has been achieved. If you still are not getting it, then maybe someone else can explain it better. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:50, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Please enlighten me, was a merge of the canonical title record and the variant title record the best procedure here, or could it just as well have been resolved with a simple 'remove title' and 'add title' to that specific publication? --Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:25, 15 April 2025 (EDT)

[3] -- JLaTondre (talk) 12:10, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

Variants Again

For whatever reason the mod above has a problem with 2 of my edits and even after another mod explained they were both acceptable he's still complaining so what I'm going to do is do both of them over again and another mod can approve them. OK, I just made them. --Username (talk) 23:13, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

You should have waited for the discussion to be completed. -- JLaTondre (talk) 07:01, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Look, I've had trouble with this mod and others incorrectly rejecting my edits for their own personal reasons. It wastes too much time trying to convince them otherwise so you, as the mod who said both were acceptable, could accept my new edits and end this whole thing. Every minute I have to reply on this board is time lost for making other edits. --Username (talk) 07:04, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

You might make use of the 'note to moderator' field to give the moderator more info, and you might be rightfully proved wrong, when it concerns variants.--Dirk P Broer (talk) 06:00, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Dickinson title and Pierce name merges have both been accepted by another mod so obviously my edits were correct in the first place; in the future don't waste our time with your incorrect rejections because you're mad about whatever and also read the link someone provided you about merging so this doesn't happen again in the future since, as a part-time mod these days, you may have missed some of the updated rules. --Username (talk) 08:49, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

Can you try to explain to me why the present Pierce situation is so much better than two days ago?--Dirk P Broer (talk) 18:07, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

I've already explained above. -- JLaTondre (talk) 18:51, 13 April 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2069447

I have just sent in the chapbook conversions for the seven books under this title. Gaz Faustus (talk) 08:36, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved, thanks for the heads up. John Scifibones 08:48, 11 April 2025 (EDT)

Another chapbook conversion

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2520611

the 2 pubs under this title have been submitted for converting - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:21, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved. Parent created, thanks for the heads up. John Scifibones 13:08, 12 April 2025 (EDT)

yet another chapbook conversion

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?2764251

Just submitted these two for converting - Gaz Faustus (talk) 12:42, 16 April 2025 (EDT)

chapbook conversions

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1708845

Another set of step 2 submissions. Faustus (talk) 08:26, 17 April 2025 (EDT)

You know that you do not need to post about these here unless you need some moderator help with them, right? Or am I missing something in these notices? :) Annie (talk) 20:44, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

I vos just obeying orders. Scifibones said that after the title is changed to short fiction then send in stage2 licketysplit and get him or another mod to do the honours "Try to get the publication conversion step processed relatively quickly." Gaz Faustus (talk) 22:49, 18 April 2025 (EDT)

Rick Rubin

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?15984; Any idea what's up with the broken and deleted image? Maybe someone can upload another one. --Username (talk) 19:13, 20 April 2025 (EDT)

Scifibones deleted it almost two years ago. You should ask him why it was deleted as no reason was given. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 12:49, 21 April 2025 (EDT)

I don't remember the problem. A new image has been uploaded. John Scifibones 13:18, 21 April 2025 (EDT)

Popular Publications

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/publisher.cgi?76273; The Flying Saucer was an African publication, nothing to do with the much later pulp publisher, something should probably be added to its publisher to differ it. I added a 2013 link to the author which shows a photo of him. --Username (talk) 09:22, 26 April 2025 (EDT)

Additional Secondary Reference

I think Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Reference, edited by Keith L. Justice, would be good to add as a potential secondary reference to choose from. Thoughts? ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 13:10, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

I am afraid I am not familiar with the book. Does it cover SF works that current secondary verification sources do not list?

(I should add that we implemented a bureaucrat-only menu option which lets you add new secondary verification sources a couple of years ago, so it should be trivial to do if we decide to add it.) Ahasuerus (talk) 15:14, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/view_submission.cgi?6242181; Copy was uploaded early in 2021, I added OL ID later that year, added archived link now. --Username (talk) 16:42, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Approved, thanks. Ahasuerus (talk) 20:06, 29 April 2025 (EDT)

Here's some images that show what's in it. Description and ToC. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 14:04, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

Oh, so it's a secondary bibliography, i.e. a listing/analysis of bibliographies and other reference materials. I can see how it may have information about certain obscure SF bibliographies not covered by our secondary sources. Ahasuerus (talk) 14:33, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

Yes. A bibliography of bibliographies, so to speak. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:33, 30 April 2025 (EDT)

Earthlight

Earthlight Publication Record # 11832 . I tried to replace the cover as I found one that was face forward and not angled. I must have done something wrong as I can see the new one as well as the old one. (File:RTHLGHT1955A.jpg) The old one is taking preference and still shows in the record. Can someone fix this and tell me what I did wrong?? aardvark7 (talk) 14:34, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

Please provide the full link (URL) to the publication in question. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:49, 1 May 2025 (EDT)

Record URL https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?11832. Image link https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:RTHLGHT1955A.jpg (shows both images) aardvark7 (talk) 16:57, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Okay, all fixed. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:52, 2 May 2025 (EDT)

Some small corrections for ISFDB

I am an eagle-eyed reader but no skills in ISFDB editing, hoping a helpful moderator will make these corrections:

Under Reviews "Jean Rhys Revisited by Alexis Lykiard" is incorrectly listed under the original Ray Russell, should be changed to R. B. Russell's page (aka Ray Russell (1)), this review is in the TOC of R. B. Russell's 50 forgotten Books also I emailed R. B. Russell and he said this is his review

Gregory Norman Bossert, "With Frank and Lucinda Brewer at the East Pole" (from The Unquiet Dreamer, a Harlan Ellison tribute anthology) is a Medea story, a sequel to Harlan Ellison's "With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole" should be listed with the other Medea series stories if you don't have a copy of The Unquiet Dreamer handy to confirm this there is a StarShipSofa podcast of this story to listen to if you want to confirm, BTW this is a delightful story

Jeffrey Ford, when The Best of Jeffrey Ford collection was entered into ISFDB, two titles has typos creating phantom story title listings:

“The Empire of Ice Cream” is misentered as “The Emperor of Ice Cream” "At Reparata" misentered as "At Raparata" both of these stories should be fixed and merged

Angela Slatter the story "Swan Girls" is part of the Verity Fassbinder series and should be added to the titles listed I have read the story and it is definitely part of the Verity series, I would note this a "bonus story" in the paperback reprint of Corpselight, the second book in the Verity series

Lucy Sussex, The most recent stories in her short fiction listing are the same story, "The Inconvenient Visitors..." is the same story as "Inconvenient Visitors...;"

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by RogerSSS (talk • contribs) .

Thank you for bringing these to our attention. In the future, if you are looking for someone to edit ISFDB content for you, please post on the Community Portal and solicit help from other editors. The moderators' job is to review and process edits submitted by community members, not to do the members' editing for them. It is also unfair to the community to "jump the queue" by having moderators do edits immediately that would normally be submitted and wait in line for moderator attention. All that said, I took care of everything noted above, except I could not find a source for Corpselight showing the inclusion of "Swan Girls" as a bonus story, so I did not add that to the reprint. If you have the book or are aware of an online source for the book that shows it, please visit the publication record, click Edit at the top right, scroll down to the "Regular Titles" section, click the "Add Title" button and add "Swan Girls" there. That addition can be merged with the existing "Swan Girls" record after the submission is approved. Thanks, and thank you for contributing. --MartyD (talk) 10:18, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

The Accident

https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/File:THCCDNTXFX1955.jpg; My image didn't replace the old wrong (US) one. --Username (talk) 16:38, 3 May 2025 (EDT)

The pub record has an Image URL for the other image instead of for the one you linked above. You would need to change that. It's a different scenario than replacing the image at the end of the link with a new version of that image (so following the same link gets you a different image than before). Here, you want to break the link to the other edition's image and make a link to a different image record. --MartyD (talk) 14:09, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Publication records that shouldn't be included

What do we do with publication records that exist but which shouldn't be included? A couple of years ago, I was told by Anniemod that audio adaptations should not be cataloged and I have carefully skipped adding them. Most of them seem to have been published by GraphicAudio. Since then, I've occasionally come across publication records for adaptations such as this one. A quick look shows 157 publication records for GraphicAudio publications. What, if anything should be done about them? Thanks! Phil (talk) 08:01, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Galatea in 2-D

My edit seems to be in limbo, but I've got nothing on my talk page. 'Galatea in 2-D' edit Can someone check? Thanks. --Glenn (talk) 21:52, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

The moderators seem to be permanently understaffed, so processing is taking a bit longer. Please be patient.

There also seems to be some missing data regarding the six unnumbered pages. What content do they contain? --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 17:41, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

The excerpt listed in the entry. --Glenn (talk) 17:55, 9 May 2025 (EDT)

I don't understand. --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 13:47, 10 May 2025 (EDT)

If you look at the publication record, there is an excerpt starting on page 258. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:29, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks, I overlooked that. --Wolfram.winkler (talk) 17:04, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

I approved your edit. I also approved a subsequent edit that changed the page count from 263+[6] to 257+[6] based on the IA scan and the page numbering for the excerpt (which is given as [258]). -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:29, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Another inactive editor

While reorganizing my books, I found a primary verification by BungalowBarbara. She hasn't entered anything since 2018, and unless she pops up again, I think that she can safely be listed as inactive. MLB (talk) 23:21, 4 May 2025 (EDT)

Tag added. For any obvious cases like this, you can add it yourself by placing {{inactive}} at the top of the page. -- JLaTondre (talk) 08:34, 11 May 2025 (EDT)

Image delete

Please delete this image. It's for the wrong edition. Thanks! Phil (talk) 12:50, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Done. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 16:42, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks Phil (talk) 21:48, 6 May 2025 (EDT)

Image delete +1

Please delete the old image December 2011. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 21:21, 12 May 2025 (EDT)

And the January 2012 image here. Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 07:16, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

As requested, John Scifibones 07:37, 13 May 2025 (EDT)

Thanks John! Kev. --BanjoKev (talk) 08:34, 13 May 2025 (EDT)