The return of the blank author

[rivka, Former Moderator]

The bug that allows a book to be added without an author has returned. It should be fixed shortly, but meanwhile we have about 180 books that need fixing.

Some have authors in secondary position that need to be moved up to first; others you'll have to track down an actual author, and there may be some that belong under Anonymous or Unknown.

Ready? Begin!

[Jessica]

Yay!

[Amanda]

Rivka,

The first book I looked up had all of its info deliberately removed by a user
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

I haven't fixed it because I wanted to give you a chance to look at it

ETA: I'm finding more books where the same user deleted out the information. The rest I'm undoing those changes to revert back to the correct information.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Thanks, Amanda. If you find any other vandalized by the same user, just go ahead and fix them.

[Jessica]

Yikes Amanda, I thought they were blank editions to delete. I think the two I got were bad entries, but I will double check the librarian edits first now.

[Banjomike]

It is probably the same bug but when I pasted the author of one of these books from a website I left a bunch of spaces on the end and the author was created with that bunch of spaces. Easy to fix but not obvious to see. There might be a few more lurking around.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

"on the end" = before the name or after?

[Banjomike]

This is the author edits page
http://www.goodreads.com/author/edits...

and the book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/1...

It was on the end of the name.

[lafon حمزة]

I can't remember ever coming across something as hilarious as this on Goodreads. Am I correct in thinking it should just be deleted?

[Paula]

I have a seen a number but this one is good.

I suspect it is actually this book she means

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96...

I would combine and merge with this one

[Cait]

lafon حمزة wrote: "I can't remember ever coming across something as hilarious as this on Goodreads. Am I correct in thinking it should just be deleted?"

Hah. :) Yes, that should be deleted. You could message the poor reviewer with a link to the What's the Name of That Book??? group.

[lafon حمزة]

OK, I'll do that. I've already seen a few similar to this, but usually I have something more to go on than what was here.

[Beth]

lafon حمزة wrote: "I can't remember ever coming across something as hilarious as this on Goodreads. Am I correct in thinking it should just be deleted?"

I found one, the other day, with the title "Kimsbro #" and the isbn was obviously a phone number.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Banjomike wrote: "This is the author edits page
http://www.goodreads.com/author/edits...

and the book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/1...

It was on the end of the name."

Thanks. The fix for the issue (and yeah, it's basically the same issue) should go live soon.

[lafon حمزة]

This book clearly belongs to this author. However I don't want to change it yet because the author is the one who changed the author field from usable data to the spaces, and I'd rather temporarily leave it where it's easy to find.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Thanks. Got it.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Down to 14. Nice work, everyone! :)

[Jonathon]

The Disturbing Effects of Moonlight

If you click on the editor who deleted the info in the first message there are other edits that do not show up in the books edit log. removal of cover and changing description to the one that is currently on the book

"PLEASE NOTE this book is no longer available. It has been unpublished by the author. DO NOT add cover and details, Thank you"

interesting as this was done by a different GR author

[Amanda]

Jon wrote: "The Disturbing Effects of Moonlight

If you click on the editor who deleted the info in the first message there are other edits that do not show up in the books edit log. removal of cover and chang..."

The same user is the one who removed the information earlier (Rivka reverted the information deletions earlier today). The same user also did this for two other books that I fixed earlier today ( Deepest Darkest and Fraidy)

[Beth]

Unpublishing a book...just getting all of them back must be hard, but wow, taking them apart and getting the ink of the pages must be awful.

::grin::

[Jonathon]

The Disturbing Effects of Moonlight

I got the previous default description from the changer's librarian edit page and restored it. this change was not in the books edit log.

I also reverted the changes that she made AFTER rivka restored the missing data. format, publisher, asin and cover image were all deleted again

[Jonathon]

re message 19 Amanda
Deepest Darkest
Fraidy

Same person went back and deleted the publisher, asn and image as well as changing the description to unpublished again after your changes.

[Paula]

Rivka will sort out if she has not already official notification to the person doing the changes. In the mean time I reverted them and added a "Do Not Change" note to each.

[Jonathon]

Good note. I added it to the one that I fixed also

[Greg]

Just thought I'd take a look at the books said to be 'unpublished'. I saw what Jon meant by missing changes in the librarian change log - is that a glitch?

Also, the description given for The Disturbing Effects of Moonlight seems to be the same as that for Deepest Darkest. I thought that, perhaps, the publisher had erroneously published the same text under two different titles but this does not seem to be the case based on the review comments of the books concerned. Incidentally, the person who removed the publication data of The Disturbing Effects of Moonlight and Deepest Darkest had given rave, five-star, reviews of these books as well as of Fraidy!