ISFDB questions
Butch Malahide
magazine contents pages?
2. Isn't Weinbaum's Martian's name "Tweel" rather than "Tweerl" as
given in the ISFDB?
3. Is there any easy way for a casual user, who thinks he has spotted
an error, to call it to the attention to the people who might be
interested in correcting it? By "casual user" I mean one who lacks the
time, patience, or inclination to do any actual work, such as
registering, reading instructions, submitting edits, or doing any
research to find out if the seeming error is really an error or the
purported correction is correct, but, subject to those limitations,
would still like to be helpful.
Jon Schild
Also, when there are gaps in the works of an author, why is there no
link to send someone a message to fill in the gaps? Same for any other
missing information.
--
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-- Galileo Galilei
Ahasuerus
> 1. Any chance of adding "next issue" and "previous issue" links to the
> magazine contents pages?
At this point all magazine relationships are maintained in the ISFDB
Wiki -- see the Wiki Magazines page at http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Magazines
, which is linked from the main ISFDB page. It would be possible to
move all of this data into the database proper, but it would require a
fair amount of work and we have only one "real" programmer, Al von
Ruff, whose ISFDB time is rather limited, so it's unlikely to happen
in the foreseeable future.
> 2. Isn't Weinbaum's Martian's name "Tweel" rather than "Tweerl" as
> given in the ISFDB?
It's "Tweel" in the story, but Wikipedia mentions that he was "also
referred to as a "Tweerl", the exact pronunciation of the word is said
to be impossible for humans" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Tweel_(A_Martian_Odyssey)), although I can't find this spelling in the
Gutenberg text.
> 3. Is there any easy way for a casual user, who thinks he has spotted
> an error, to call it to the attention to the people who might be
> interested in correcting it? By "casual user" I mean one who lacks the
> time, patience, or inclination to do any actual work, such as
> registering, reading instructions, submitting edits, or doing any
> research to find out if the seeming error is really an error or the
> purported correction is correct, but, subject to those limitations,
> would still like to be helpful.
Unfortunately, this is a rather large can of worms. The original plan
was to make the interface so easy to use that anybody could submit a
correction. However, as the project grew and increasingly obscure
cases had to be accommodated, we had to create an increasingly
elaborate system of rules, which now approaches OCLC's cataloging
guidelines in complexity :(
I suspect that one of two things will eventually happen: either we add
very sophisticated interactive data validation mechanisms to the user
interface to guide new users through the data entry process or we end
up creating a special page in the Wiki where "casual" editors could
post additions/corrections in plain English, which would then be
entered into the database by moderators. The former is unlikely to
happen as long as our current lack of programming resources persists
and the latter would be a major (and rather painful) paradigm shift
for the project.
I guess we could try the latter approach and see whether it's
workable. The ISFDB Community Portal (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/
index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal) would be the logical place to post
corrections, although if we get too many of them, we may have to
create a separate Wiki page.
Ahasuerus
> Also, when there are gaps in the works of an author, why is there no
> link to send someone a message to fill in the gaps? Same for any other
> missing information.
ISFDB users can submit corrections/additions directly using our built-
in editing tools. All you have to do to see them in the navigation bar
on the left is register, which takes about 10 seconds, since we don't
ask for any information aside from user name and password. Granted,
there are issues with casual editors (who often can't spend the time
needed to absorb all of our submission guidelines) contributing to the
project -- see my response to Butch Malahide for details and possible
alternatives.
Butch Malahide
expect any further replies.
On Oct 24, 11:41 am, Ahasuerus <ahasue...@email.com> wrote:
>
> > 2. Isn't Weinbaum's Martian's name "Tweel" rather than "Tweerl" as
> > given in the ISFDB?
>
> It's "Tweel" in the story, but Wikipedia mentions that he was "also
> referred to as a "Tweerl", the exact pronunciation of the word is said
> to be impossible for humans" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Tweel_(A_Martian_Odyssey)), although I can't find this spelling in the
> Gutenberg text.
That wikipedia page also mentions "Arthur C. Clark" so I wouldn't take
it as an authority. I couldn't find "Tweerl" in my copy, the 1949
Fantasy Press collection. Of course "Tweel" is the anglicized form.
The unpronounceable Martian is rendered as "T-r-r-rweee-r-rl" with
varying numbers of r's, e's and l's. Anyway, an ISFDB series search
for the familiar "Tweel" comes up empty, you have to search on the
unheard-of "Tweerl" to find it. I'd call this a problem, but not an
urgent one; I suppose anyone who has heard of Tweel probably knows the
author and/or titles as well.
> > 3. Is there any easy way for a casual user, who thinks he has spotted
> > an error, to call it to the attention to the people who might be
> > interested in correcting it? By "casual user" I mean one who lacks the
> > time, patience, or inclination to do any actual work, such as
> > registering, reading instructions, submitting edits, or doing any
> > research to find out if the seeming error is really an error or the
> > purported correction is correct, but, subject to those limitations,
> > would still like to be helpful.
>
> [. . .]
> The ISFDB Community Portal (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/
> index.php/ISFDB:Community_Portal) would be the logical place to post
> corrections, although if we get too many of them, we may have to
> create a separate Wiki page.
Thanks, I'll try that if the occasion arises again. I'd already looked
at that Community Portal before posting my questions here; it didn't
look very inviting as the content seemed to consist of boring
technical inside stuff.
Ahasuerus
[snip]
> Thanks for your detailed reply! Not wanting to be a pest, I don't
> expect any further replies.
No worries, I used to be... um, somewhat active on r.a.sf.w :)
> Anyway, an ISFDB series search
> for the familiar "Tweel" comes up empty, you have to search on the
> unheard-of "Tweerl" to find it.
Thanks, fixed!
Well, it's as close to a "general purpose discussion place" as
anything else that we have. If you post on the Help Desk page, you
will be more likely to be told how to enter the data into the
database :)