Question @ combining elements of large series

Hi, can someone please either confirm that this is the only way to do it, or is there some shortcut I'm overlooking?

The problem: when combining works that belong to a series, I get "potential combinations" with the ENTIRE SERIES. Is this normal behaviour? It makes no sense! And the scrolling to the one right potential takes forever.

This is the Criterion Collection I'm talking about. Is there some edit or something that could make it stop opening every time the entire damn list? I'm just hoping it's something about how the series was set, and not the actual site default.

Apologies if this is a repeated complaint, I couldn't tell whether exactly the same problem was raised before.

ETA: sorry, the link above says deleted series?

Here's one element within it that I just had this problem: Letter Never Sent. DVD

ETA again: ok, now I'm even more confused. Why does this blasted "series" open every time I add a Criterion dvd but it's not showing up on the related series list?

You don't have to use potential combinations to join things, you can just search for them, add them to the workbench and combine them from there.

Getting lots of crossover in potential combinations often means ISBN problems - bad combinations already exist, or bad data exists where isbns or other data have been reused in sources, I'm not surprised that DVD data is really bad. But it is interesting that everything already added to the series shows up, maybe there's something going on there.

I don't understand your last question.

>2 Aquila:

It doesn't matter whether it's from work bench (I usually use it) or Author or Title... It's hard to explain without illustration... I add a DVD, using Title.DVD structure. I know this is usually going to be a one-off (i.e. other people use different ways to indicate a film/media in the title), so I expect I will have to combine my item into a larger work. The problem is that it seems to add my stuff in two steps: with a title, and a second "ghost" version with "No Title" (but you can see the title underneath this). Yeah, I know this is clear as mud--I'm just used to it by now.

So the first combination sort of combines my item half-way into the work. In order for my name to appear on the members list, I have to combine in the "ghost" version as well. This is where I get that bloomin' endless series list and I must scroll looking for the right work to combine the "No Title/but actually here's your title" version.

I'll take screenshots next time.

>4 LolaWalser: Are you adding manually? There is a somewhat old bug that crops up occasionally when adding manually, usually non book items (I had never had it with books, I have it happening with magazines and radio plays for example) - it creates that second ghost 0-copy work that needs to be combined into the work as well and your data is kinda split between the two works weirdly. It had been reported more than once but I am not sure that LT ever reproduced cleanly.

If someone does not beat me to it, I will look for one of the bugs tomorrow (I am about to go off for the day).

>5 AnnieMod:

Hi, yes, I'm adding "manually". I made some screenshots which I hope may at least illustrate what happens.

Step 1: I added Solaris.DVD (manually). This is what it looks like after I click "Save":



Note the "No other members"--but I'm sure more people have copies so I know I'll be combining.

Next I go to the item page to add it to "Work Bench"... but note that the members copies is at 0...



Next step in a new post...

On Work Bench, I combine my Solaris. 2 DVD item with the existing Solaris work. But then I get the prompt to combine Solaris with THE ENTIRE SERIES. I can't screenshot the whole thing of course, so I'm just showing you the bits from the beginning--12 Angry Men--through the end, "Z". In between there's hundreds of titles with hundreds of copies, including my lost ghost "No Title/but actually Solaris.2DVD" version.

Top:



Bottom:

Oh, and for people who don't know what I mean by the ghost "No Title/but here's the title" version, a screenshot from a different addition, but you get the idea:

Yep, that looks like the good old bug. Will track down the thread tomorrow. :)

Thanks, but don't hurt yourself trying. :) If it's an old bug, I know there's little hope of getting it fixed. I guess I'm just the one lunatic still adding everything "manually"... Although as you can see, should another one appear, more of a newbie, apparently the opportunity for creating a huge mess in any series is enormous.

>10 LolaWalser: Oh, I do add manually as well. I am just used to it. :) And it does not happen if the media is “book” (at least for me) so the people who hit it are the ones adding other things - which usually means not so new members. There are a lot of ways to mess up series or any of the community data. When it happens, we fix it and move on. :)

A combination of two of my least-favorite bugs!

Firstly, Two works are created when manually adding a new work that is not already on the site: https://www.librarything.com/topic/312780

Second, Suggested work combinations are pretty much completely broken: https://www.librarything.com/topic/297855

Ayyy... thanks for alerting me to the bug reports, norabelle. And thanks for the bumps.