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Walt Grogan

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Posts posted by Walt Grogan

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    On 7/2/2022 at 9:02 AM, Douglas W. McCratic said:

    Did you find it?  Did you find that a single space after the ellipsis in each title was removed?  A SINGLE SPACE.  We changed two titles for a single space in the title.  How is this acceptable but it is somehow not acceptable to change titles as mentioned in this thread to fix them so that they make some kind of sense?  We have discussed how it might inconvenience some collectors and prevent them from getting updates to the titles that they own.  Why inconvenience some collectors for the sake of a single space in a title but not others to make huge corrections to make the db follow some sensible order? 

    Behind the scenes, I don't think they changed this title. Don't get me wrong, they may have and if they did, they should for other titles as well. I think what they may have done is simply trim trailing spaces in the query results which doesn't require actually changing the title, but I could be wrong.

    Justice League Spectacular #1 (1992) buried under Justice League America

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    4 hours ago, Douglas W. McCratic said:

    In addition to slowing things down, without the knowledge I now have from digging all over for information on these books, it doesn't make any sense.  The original title was "Justice League" in 1987 but that became "Justice League International," which changed titles in 1989 to "Justice League America."  The trouble is that the books in question were placed under Justice League America, throwing a word into the title that is nowhere on these books.  I understand that these two have the same writer/artist as was on the main title at the time but finding it would be near impossible without knowing that or looking for the title.  

    Wholeheartedly agree, Douglas, but there doesn't seem to be much appetite to fix these things -- which seems pretty odd for a database program. I'll continue to point them out, but I'm not holding out hope that they'll be fixed. 

    • Like 1

    Justice League Spectacular #1 (1992) buried under Justice League America

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Randall J. Paske said:

    I think this falls under the general rule in ComicBase that annuals, specials, etc., are listed under the main title, following the philosophy that if you were looking for them in a shop, you would find them with the main title.  It's not my own preference (I'd rather have separate title listings), but I'm learning to live with it. It does make things hard to find sometimes, especially when there are multiple iterations of a series (Justice League, for example) and you don't know for sure which one the annual/special/spectacular is associated with.

    Hi, Randall--

    I get it and, unfortunately, I'm learning to live with it, too -- but it really SLOWS things down when you have to stop and wonder 🤔, where is this thing going to be found in CB? Let's go on a scavenger hunt!

    • Like 2

    Justice League Spectacular #1 (1992) buried under Justice League America

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    I just had an interesting time finding this issue. There is no title entry for Justice League Spectacular as it's indicated in its indicia and it was published too early for it to have a barcode. I couldn't believe that it hadn't been indexed, so how did I find this comic? Search by writer and artist? No, it's Dan Jurgens so that would have brought back too many issues. So I ended up searching the StoryLines field, hoping that the story title had been added to that field. Luckily, it had. The issue ended up being indexed under Justice League America as Item # SP 1/B. Obviously, someone decided that this issue should be buried under a different title. Is there a chance that this can be pulled out, and have its title created?

    Again, I love ComicBase, but I find this aspect of using it frustrating as it just slows me down from entering my very large collection. I hope that these criticisms are being taken in the spirit they are given -- to help, in some small way, to better ComicBase.

    • Like 1

    Can Add by Barcode Identify the Type of Item (i.e Comics, Magazines, or Books)

    in Feature Suggestions

    Posted · Edited by Walt Grogan

    8 hours ago, Mark J. Castaneda said:

    It's a known limitation according to the programming team - the Add by barcode/show results will only show the type of list of the top scanned item, since it's impossible to mix and match media types. You may want to separately batch your items by media type.

    Hi, Mark--

    Thanks for your response but that's actually the problem. Let's say I have a batch of 100 comics I'm Adding By Barcode and I unwittingly happen to have a something that's comic-sized in the bunch but classified as a magazine in ComicBase, I'm basically SOL when I save (this is what happened to me). If I have to look up all my comics up front to see if I happen to have a comic-sized item that's a magazine, it seriously defeats the purpose of Adding By Barcode.   

    The Add By Barcode dialog does not show the category type of the top item and even if it did, it would still be mostly useless as anything that's miscategorized will trip up the Saving of the list. It also doesn't matter what you're currently looking at in the title view. I can add anything and since I don't know how it's categorized, I might be in for a rude surprise when I save, and that's bad since I want to update some custom fields.

    It seems to me that each issue must have a type (book, comic, or magazine) that should be accessible through title. If it can be looked up and added, then its type should be available and displayed.

    Or based on you comment, if the first thing you scan is a comic, it should reject anything that's not based on that type. I actually prefer this approach.

    I also hope my criticisms are taken in the spirit they're given. I like ComicBase. These suggestions are only to help it be better and more user-friendly.

    Best,
    Walt 

    AddByBarcode.jpg

    • Thanks 1

    Can Add by Barcode Identify the Type of Item (i.e Comics, Magazines, or Books)

    in Feature Suggestions

    Posted

    I love Add by Barcode but if I'm scanning a bunch of stuff and I accidentally scan different types in the same session, the resultant Save list won't show everything due to different types. This is a colossal pain, if I've scanned a whole bunch of stuff. For instance, I scanned a whole bunch of comics and unwittingly scanned a a comic-sized book that was typed as a magazine. The Saved results only showed the magazine.

    --Walt 

    • Thanks 1

    A Proposal for Reorganizing and Standardizing Titles in ComicBase

    in Feature Suggestions

    Posted

    Although ComicBase is an amazing program and the defacto standard for cataloging a comic book/magazine/book collection, it suffers from a major defect and that is how titles are created, named, and maintained especially if a title ends and is restarted with a new number one adding it as part of a series. A classic simple example of this is DC Comics's Metal Men, e.g.

    1. Metal Men
    2. Metal Men (3rd Series)
    3. Metal Men (4th Series)
    4. Metal Men (Mini-Series)

    In the example above, Metal Men (Mini-Series) would ideally be Metal Men (2nd Series). However, there is an underlying decision that makes renaming Metal Men (Mini-Series) problematic, as described by Pete, and that is that the title name is used as the foreign key in, what I presume, is the Item table.

    This defect can make it difficult to locate a specific title, organize titles in order of their publication and often results in additional titles added for titles that already exist. Based on the comments of @Peter R. Bickford in the live stream of 4/13/2022, it seems that it is unlikely to change. I think that's a shame since organization is the major component of a database application. 

    After giving this just a little bit of thought, I think this may be a starting point of a solution that could solve the problem. Caveat: I'm suggesting this without knowing the intricacies of the DB structure and would welcome input. I expect that moving forward with this will not only take time to mull over but to implement as well, but ultimately will make ComicBase an even greater product than it already is. Here's my take:

    1. Create a new field called DisplayTitle in the table that contains Title.
    2. Copy the values of the existing Title field into DisplayTitle.
    3. Use this DisplayTitle for searching and display.
    4. When a new title is created either by CB or a user, copy that value into the DisplayTitle field as well.
    5. If a DisplayTitle needs to be changed, CB verifies the new display title, changes it and voila, after the next update, the title can be found and sorted correctly.

    This would allow the implementation of a title naming standard perhaps using the indicia, year, and even the publisher of the title.

    Something like Metal Men (1993 Series) (DC)

    The benefit of this is if the standard changes, titles can be easily updated.

    This solution addresses some of the problems that @Peter R. Bickford brought up in the live stream.

    1. It doesn't violate the foreign key constraints between Title and Item.
    2. It easily allows for renaming the DisplayTitle if the indicia changes between solicitation and publication of the title.
    3. There is no requirement to shift data around in the tables and potentially mess up a user's data, since it's simply a DisplayTitle change.

    I'd love to see something like this implemented.

    --Walt

     

    • Like 2

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    After giving this just a little bit of thought, here's a solution that could solve the problem. Caveat: I'm suggesting this without knowing the intricacies of the DB structure.

    1. Create a new field called DisplayTitle in the table that contains Title.
    2. Copy the values of the existing Title field into DisplayTitle.
    3. Use this DisplayTitle for searching and display.
    4. When a new title is created either by CB or a user, copy that value into the DisplayTitle field as well.
    5. If a DisplayTitle needs to be changed, CB changes it and voila, after the next update, the title can be found and sorted correctly.

    This would require a fairly strict naming protocol using the indicia and year of first publication as the name...

    something like Metal Men (1993 Series)

    although even if it gets messed up, it can be easily changed.

    This solution addresses some of the problems that @Peter R. Bickford brought up in the call yesterday.

    1. It doesn't violate the foreign key constraints between Title and Item.
    2. It easily allows for renaming the DisplayTitle if the indicia changes between solicitation and publication.
    3. There is no requirement to shift data around in the tables and potentially mess up a user's data, since it's simply a DisplayTitle change.

    I'd love to see something like this implemented.

    --Walt

     

     

    • Like 1

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    It's a shame that there will be no action on this as there are remedies to fix titles. I was stunned to learn that the foreign key that links titles and items together is the title itself and not a unique identifier of some kind. I understand this is a legacy problem and sympathize but it seems strange that the answer is inaction especially for a product that emphasizes organization.

    At worst, a new title field could be implemented that is curated by ComicBase following a well-defined standard and that could be activated via a preference.

    Until then, if ever, I guess we'll have to live with the existing disorganization.

     ☹️

    • Like 1

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    16 hours ago, Randall J. Paske said:

    I'll never be able to watch or participate in a livestream as it happens, but I've been catching up on the archived versions. This does at least have the benefit of allowing me to fast-forward the occasional conservative monologue, which I often find off-putting (no prizes for guessing that my views tend to fall toward the other end of the spectrum). Other than that, I've enjoyed the livestreams and learned a few things. I would like to see a discussion of these titling problems.

    That's my feeling as well for the same reason.

    • Like 2

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Gregory Hecht said:

    CB could issue a program update that (for example) looks to see if the user has the title Star Wars (1st series) in their database(s).  If they do, the update says something like: "This update will rename your existing title Star Wars (1st series) to Star Wars (1977 series).  All of your inventory and issue data will be preserved, only the title will be changed to match to master database.  Click "yes" to continue.  If you click "no", this update will keep your existing title and create a new, separate Star Wars (1977 series)."

    I think it's a great idea, I'm just afraid this is going to die on the vine and I'll be complaining about it again the next time I come across a crazy title.

    • Like 2

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Gregory Hecht said:

    Long ago (i.e., on the old CB msg boards) I suggested that this problem could be overcome if CB's content updates would (with the user's permission) move existing inventory to newly corrected titles... for example, if CB changed the existing Star Wars (1st series) to Star Wars (1977 series), then the update would give a pop-up window for the user to give permission for their old SW 1st series inventory to all be moved to the new SW 1977 series title.  Nothing ever came of it, and my knowledge of programming is insignificant enough for me to have no clue as to whether my suggestion could actually be implemented.  But if it could, it would allow CB to do a lot of clean-up that would make the program much more accessible to brand new users.  

    I definitely expected as much but I still think it's sad since ComicBase is the defacto comic book database. I realize that CB is nearing 30 years old but there is so much mess in it that it makes finding some things near impossible. One has to constantly think how some might have cataloged a title. Did they:

    1. Lop it on to the same title from another publisher (eg. Blondie)
    2. Throw multiple different titles under the same pot (eg. ...
      1. Spider-Man Comics Weekly #1-157
      2. Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes #158-198
      3. Super Spider-Man and the Titans #199-230
      4. Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231-253 ( no title, number or date in the indicia)
      5. Super Spider-Man #254-310
      6. Spider-Man Comic #311-333
      7. The Spectacular Spider-Man Weekly #334-375
      8. Spider-Man and Hulk Weekly #376-424
      9. Spider-Man and Hulk Team-Up #425-449
      10. Super Spider-Man TV Comic #450-499
      11. Spider-Man #500-552
      12. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends #553-578
      13. Spider-Man #579-633
      14. The Spider-Man Comic #634-650
      15. Spidey Comic #651-666

        All this leads to is someone creating a new title because they can't find an existing one (e.g. Super Spider-Man and The Titans)
    3. Ignore the indicia and add it to the bottom of a different title.
    4. Not pay attention to how other titles were organized. In the case of Metal Men or Star Wars or titles that have multiple series, scroll through the list hoping that the logo on the comic associated with the title is representative enough that you choose the correct before trying again. One of the selling points that Pete, himself, makes is how labeling your comics makes it easier to organize and find them -- that may be true for a few titles but this lack of consistency makes that claim nearly preposterous in quite a few cases.
    5. Not know the start of a title and just guess locking the first issue in stone and making the addition of previous issues impossible (e.g. DC Coming Comics)

    And those are just a sample of the cases that I've come across. I have a monstrous collection that I want to organize and these inconsistencies make it difficult to do so. I can't believe that these issues can't be resolved in a database (which is really the point of a database and that is to resolve inconsistencies).

    I'm hoping the ultimate answer is not "well it's set in stone now" so we can't do anything about it. Because then everyone is at the whim and mercy of whomever enters a new title and all everyone can do is hope that they enter it correctly. That seems like the worst possible answer.

    --Walt 

    • Like 1

    Consistency in Multiple Series Titles (e.g. Metal Men)

    in Content and Corrections

    Posted

    26 minutes ago, Douglas W. McCratic said:

    Personally, I would prefer the title followed by the year.  My second choice is the title with the publisher in parentheses and then the year. 

    Absolutely agree! As well as...
     

    Quote

    I prefer the way CGD does it with each new publisher getting a new entry with a notation in the previous publisher's title to the effect of "numbering continues in Title X from Publisher Y."

     

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