Sorry but I have another question about aliases (I’m already dreaming of pseudonyms, pen names and nicknames).
I was convinced that the alias in the edition form is used for the correct artist name used for the edition.
But when I just did that with Russian author Ivan Turgenev and added the German alias, I realized that the name appears just beneath the title.
Looks correct when you don’t compare it to the normal view without alias and forget that AgathaCrustie proposed to add the author to the view of the edition.
So I assume the alias is also an alias for the title. Correct?
But then there is no possibilty at all to relate an edition to the correct alias or am I just not able to find it?
I think that will be solved if and when the database author name is added to the Edition.
What you added is a German Edition and that is how his name is listed in the book.
The format of the page might need some tweaking or maybe a descriptor would assist (or both).
(Like you I am starting to dream all things BB and currently I can’t feel my legs. Time for a break maybe)
yes, but I added this as an alias in the edition alias field and I think this is wrong since the author’s name doesn’t appear at this place normally…
Yeah. That alias facility is for the title of the Edition and not for the author of the book. I must be tired😴
There is another matter raised by your question.
Is Russian Cyrillic (this also applies to other language specific scripts) going to be used for all Russian author names, or for those less well known, or not at all?
Bookogs was a crazy mixture of both with many duplications. BB does have the advantage with the alias facility.
Since “not at all” is not possible for the just locally-known “small” authors in the respective countries, I think it will be a mix since “we” will not always be able to find the correct Korean, Hebrew etc. name.
I always prefered the English name for the more famous authors, but I also could live with the decision to add the original name as PAN. I just had to decide If I use Imre Kertesz or Kertesz Imre (the Hungarian way). And I thought:
So it is not too important imo
When I think about it this doesn’t really matter because of the alias facility. No one should get upset, not even Hungarian contributors!
Well I remember in bookogs the PAN was changed to the Hungarian style by an “outraged” Hungarian user 
That’s who I am thinking about!
Have you considered the question of how to list book series (eg. James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot)? If you have I would be interested to hear your thoughts as this is something I think is important.
I will leave you with that thought as I need to go to bed. Gute Nacht!
Gute Nacht, I’ll tell you tomorrow…
That is correct. We have what we call “author credits” on the way (mostly implemented but not yet finished) which solves the issue of showing the author(s) on an Edition, namely the authors’ names as they appear on the cover, linked to the actual Author entity.
They are based on MusicBrainz’ Artist Credits
I believe this is what the “primary” field in the aliases might have been there to solve: I might choose Ivan Turgenyev as the main name for the author, arguing that it is the most well-known form, while “Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev” might be the primary alias in english, while the primary alias in french would be “Ivan Tourguéniev”
I should also be able to mark the author’s primary alias in their original language and script as “Иван Сергеевич Тургенев”. Currently there is no way to indicate script or that this is the author’s original language name.
I am also very interested in having this conversation, and start implementing a Series entity. (on another forum post 
)
There would need to be a policy as to what constitutes a “primary” otherwise the site would turn into a battleground.
The reverse Hungarian naming convention is one example. Nobel prize winner, Imre Kertész becomes Kertész Imre in Hungarian. I’m sure most Hungarian uses would feel justified in claiming the primary.
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Absolutely.
I would suggest (as always) basing it off of the existing MusicBrainz guidelines:
An excerpt:
Keep in mind MusicBrainz is an international site, and “official name” doesn’t necessarily mean “most common English name”. For example, the “official name” for the Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu is “武満徹”, not “Tōru Takemitsu” (which is the primary English alias instead).
