It's happened again

[Lobstergirl]

http://www.goodreads.com/work/edition...

15,214 editions of NABbed books have been combined.

What's this, the third or fourth time this has happened? I thought the person doing this was reprimanded the last time...revoking librarian "privileges" is in order.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

It doesn't look to be the same person.

It happens ANY time someone gets the bright idea to use auto-combine for that "author".

[Lobstergirl]

Maybe we should disable auto-combine.

Or at a minimum, have a huge pop-up for auto-combine within NOT A BOOK that screams DO NOT AUTOCOMBINE.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I actually just asked Michael if that is possible for that "author".

We'll see what he says.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

I've never liked the auto-combine feature for any author. Would rather just do the work of finding the editions.

[Jessica]

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "I've never liked the auto-combine feature for any author. Would rather just do the work of finding the editions."

Ditto that, I've never even used it.

[Beth]

I've tried it, but it doesn't seem to be very effective. I've used it for an author that appears to have about a million uncombined editions for a million and a half different works...to kind of give me a head start...but I always have to go back and combine some more...it only combines the most obviously same ones. If it's got *anything* different in the title, or it's in a different language, forget it. Even caps/lower case seem to affect it.

I can't figure out why people are messing with the nab's though...or why it matters if anything is combined? I guess I just never really thought about it.

[Beth]

Frankly, I think of it as a closet of horrors I'd just rather not open. ::shudder::

[rivka, Former Moderator]

*shrug* I find auto-combine very useful for certain authors. Would never use it on many others, though. And I definitely always check if there's a don't-use Note. (And there IS one on NAB.)

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Michael broke it up, and will see what he can do about disabling auto-combine for that "author".

[Jessica]

On a slightly related note, I think I've heard this before, but if something that was imported from amazon is NABbed, and leaves the amazon database, can it then be deleted?

I'm so full of questions today for some reason...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Yes, but it would have to be gone from ALL the Amazon sites. It's not uncommon to still be on .uk or .ca, even if it's gone from .com.

[Jessica]

Boo. That would have been a fun project, going through those. Thanks rivka!

[Shay]

Jessica wrote: "Boo. That would have been a fun project, going through those. Thanks rivka!"

Too bad there's not a special designation for these kinds of NAB's. So eventually if they either find a way to filter them out from the GR database or whatever, they could be found easier. Like "NOT A BOOK ASIN"

[Lobstergirl]

Jessica wrote: "This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "I've never liked the auto-combine feature for any author. Would rather just do the work of finding the editions."

Ditto that, I've never even used it..."

Ditto again. Never used it.

[Lobstergirl]

rivka wrote: "Michael broke it up, and will see what he can do about disabling auto-combine for that "author"."

Great.

[Sandra]

Good idea!

I've never used it myself either.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

I don't think I have, either.