Author Page Confusion

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Author Page Confusion

1aspirit
Mar 7, 2021, 3:59 pm

If I click on the author link from Unicorn, I'm taken to an author page that shows no works. Recalculating doesn't update the page.

If I search for the author, Richard Gradner (who's on LibraryThing), the result takes me to an author page that shows the work with a checkmark showing it's in my main collection.

I know I can (and will) combine the author pages, but what happened? Is this a fluke or an issue a member can prevent when adding an edition?

Links:
https://www.librarything.com/work/18386556
https://www.librarything.com/author/gradnerrichard
https://www.librarything.com/author/gradnermrrichard

2AnnieMod
Modifié : Mar 7, 2021, 4:25 pm

Book vs work plus a canonical name

Your book: https://www.librarything.com/work/18386556/book/197346637 leads to the page of Gradner, Richard because the author is the one you put in your catalog and this is what you are supposed to see. I am not sure if you will see this even if you look at the work page clear (I use a separate browser when dealing with my own books to verify that I am not seeing things)

The work page https://www.librarything.com/work/18386556 gets me to https://www.librarything.com/author/gradnermrrichard (who has a canonical name Gradner, Richard- this is actually Gradner, Mr Richard page) because it wins on the recalculate.

Thus the mess. The two authors need combining. I will leave you to do it and will close the bug :)

3aspirit
Mar 7, 2021, 5:10 pm

I didn't see a way to make gradnerrichard win out, so the works are under gradnermrrichard now.

Ick.

I would still like to know why this happened. This isn't the first time I've seen a situation like this, and it always looks wrong, as if the system isn't doing what it's supposed to do.

4MarthaJeanne
Mar 7, 2021, 5:36 pm

I agree with 'Ick.' but the system is doing what is supposed to do.

Amazon has been corrected, but the author's name on his books in his LT catalogue hasn't. If others enter the books properly this will be fixable eventually.

5AnnieMod
Modifié : Mar 7, 2021, 5:38 pm

Why would you expect the name you used to win? The other copy is under the other name so it is 1 vs 1 and in this case the longer name usually wins.

6aspirit
Mar 7, 2021, 6:32 pm

>5 AnnieMod: I expect to choose. That wasn't a option because gradnerrichard was showing as having no works to it-- despite works going to it. The only combination I could make was into gradnermrrichard.

This is the first I've heard of the longer name winning.

7AnnieMod
Modifié : Mar 7, 2021, 7:44 pm

It is the Ann A. Name vs Ann Name decision - You want the site to choose the one with the initial when all other things are equal. And in this case the system could not know that this Mr. is not the same thing.

But that is the point - the work combined and went into the other author. There were books under the author you have in tour catalog but no works - the work went under the other one. This is how LT works. In order for your author link to work and the link from your book page, the author needs to be combined with the other one. When you combine the two authors, both names will lead to the same page now.

That is why names should never be uncombined from an author when they belong there even if there are no books under them - this causes exactly the kind of issues you saw here

Look at the editions of the work your book belongs to. There are two entries; two separate authors. Their author pages are not combined. So the work will be on one of the two pages only - one of the two members with the book will have an empty author until the author pages are combined.

8AnnieMod
Mar 7, 2021, 9:45 pm

Although there is also a chance that there was a cache issue (same cause like the mess we were talking about over in Combiners) that solved itself between when you posted and I saw the thread?

9x_hoxha
Mar 8, 2021, 3:15 am

This is happening tonight with every author page I look at--they all say, "No works currently catalogued." Repeatedly hitting "Recalculate author name" eventually causes the works to show up.

10timspalding
Mar 8, 2021, 3:44 am

Hey. If you see this, can you link me to it. It's possible something I did changed the caching rules on authors. I did a lot of caching tweaks last night—with significant overall speed effects.

11timspalding
Mar 8, 2021, 3:54 am

Okay, fixed. Sorry for the issue. Clearly this particular caching solution didn't work.