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The Encyclopedia of Sci-fi Goes Live Online
arcite writes "After twenty years of hard work, the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction website has recently gone live. It's an online database containing thousands of entries for all things Sci-fi, and a great place to read all about your favourite authors, characters, themes, and everything else."
Then deletionists showed up. No amount of "personal appeals" will ever get me to like Wikipedia again. Hopefully as more people get fed up of Deletionists they will set up their own encyclopedias.
Who cares about deletionists? They're the last thing we need.
http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/notes_on_content
Seems to just be a long list bragging about all the stuff they deleted. Golf clap for them. I'm so glad I won't be able to find stuff I'm trying to find, just what I always wanted in a website.
Bye bye guys don't forget to rm -Rf / on the way out.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Yawn, you do better???
contains all the sci-fi information I need.
I thought that all of that was tracked in wikipaedia
Ol' Rick Dawson had a farm EIEIO
When they started, there was no Wikipedia. But I guess it shows some sort of grim determination that they bothered to finish?
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Clicking on their link "characters" gives you this embarrassing crap:
A - Character
B - Character
BATMAN
C - Character
CAPTAIN FUTURE
CAPTAIN HAZZARD
CAPTAIN JUSTICE
CAPTAIN MARVEL
CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT
CAPTAIN VIDEO
CAPTAIN ZERO
CARTER, NICK
D - Character
DALEKS
DOC SAVAGE
E - Character
F - Character
FANTÔMAS
FLASH GORDON
FORD, ASHTON
FU MANCHU
G - Character
GAMERA
GARTH
H - Character
HOLMES, SHERLOCK
I - Character
J - Character
JAMES BOND
JEFF HAWKE
JUDGE DREDD
K - Character
KEMLO
L - Character
M - Character
MODESTY BLAISE
N - Character
NICK CARTER
O - Character
P - Character
PERRY RHODAN
Q - Character
R - Character
RHODAN, PERRY
S - Character
SAINT, THE
SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY
SHADOW, THE
SHE
SUPERMAN [character]
T - Character
TARZAN
TOM SWIFT
TRIFFID
TROUT, KILGORE
U - Character
V - Character
W - Character
X - Character
Y - Character
Z - Character
So there have been no sci-fi charactes whos names start with A, or L, or U, or W?
In all of sci-fi?
This is basically a Dr Who fan site. Dr Who is the shittiest, lowest common denominator, excuse for "sci fi" that there ever was.
On second thought, you probably can...
I can put something like this together in a month from code w better nav aond colors prolly, assuming I can copy paste the content, which is fair since I'd be the developer, NOT the researcher on the project.
Still a very strong start, not a 20 year one though.
Slashdotted
Will draft for food...
The Encyclopedia of Sci-fi Goes Offline
This doesn't really look like 20 years of effort. Lot's of holes.
I only found two.
But on a more serious note, I looked up Stanislaw Lem expecting to find a footnote and was instead fairly impressed with the depth, cross references and quality. Perhaps this caters to old school sci-fi? Mind filling us in on what's missing?
There's even a short but accurate entry for Kilgore Trout.
My work here is dung.
Look it up !! And it's got space rastlin', too !!
This won't solve anything.
The Kirk or Picard, who was best, argument will go on forever.
and it was Kirk!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It's just Science Fiction, the real stuff, none of that Fantasy werewolves/vampire crud! ;)
They don't even have a list of his works. Startide Rising is one of the best SF novels I've ever read. A search for "Mote" reveals another perilous gap. I'd say this site is barely even a good overview much less a comprehensive record. Maybe they've been preferential to authors publishing under they own Gateway label?
I also wasn't able to find anything about an obscure, classic SF novel I read once that may have had one or more sequels; my memory is sketchy but Earth was sending out warships, they had to reverse thrust halfway to their destination (couldn't travel faster than light) there was a mutiny and I remember vaguely something about iceships and neanderthals?
g=
I tried a few searches that failed, and it looks like others have too.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
I must SAY that the complete CAPITALIZATION of every LINK in each ARTICLE makes it extremely DIFFICULT for me to READ. Perhaps there are PEOPLE that don't mind READING such oddly CAPITALIZED ARTICLES, but I am not one of THEM.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Amazon and feedbooks
On CREATING a site that is so UNREADABLE I can hardly tell if the INFORMATION is worth putting up with.
Seriously, changing the color of links is enough. I don't need every other word in caps in an article.
If I'm reading the article correctly this is an online version of a book last published in 1993. I'm assuming there are some additions, but basically it's the book... And they're working hard on uploading the rest of the content? So it's out there, and digital, but they're just having a hard time getting it into a database? You're telling me the Encyclopedia of Sci-Fi is having problems that I would expect the Encyclopedia of Quilting, Knitting and Crocheting would have?
I mean, under characters they have 36 entire entries already! Wow! And no section for books? What? Wait, they have an article on the Buggles! OK, they've totally redeemed themselves. This isn't a terrible website, it's a terrible website which has an article on the Buggles.
It appears to be run by a proper publishers, Hachette despite hiding behind a Domains By Proxy Registration.
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
There's also ISFDB. It's just a database of fiction, but it seems to be very complete.
Find free books.
I thought Wikipedia was already live?
Yes
For starters "T'ealc"
"Like The Next Generation, the show affected a dialogue and acting style that was stiff and unrealistic" ...aaaand I'm outta here.
How does it compare to scifi.wikia.com? It seems from the description that this encyclopedia is released in editions and is not user generated. Don't think I will be that impressed with it.
After reading a few of the entries, it seems to be more of a critic than an encyclopedia. After looking up several items, I didn't find it particularly useful.
BOOO!
No entry for Quark!
BOOOO!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(TV_series)
Entry Search > “starwars”
Your search didn't return any results.
I mean really. What use is this if they don't even have that much?
Search for 'grok'. You won't find it on this encyclopedia. Enough said.
All the deleted items listed in the link you provided are things they deleted in the 2nd edition of their book to make room for more worthy material given page limits imposed by their publisher. The very first paragraph makes clear that this is no longer a concern in the online version:
The notes below, from the 1993 second edition, are largely unrevised. In general we have been able to relax many constraints previously forced on us by the space limitations of a single printed volume. Some authors of short stories only, like Vance AANDAHL, appeared in the first edition, were cut to save space in the second and are now restored;
There is nothing in that article that suggests they plan on cutting material because it is non-notable. Only an admission that there is a lot of Sci-Fi out there and only so much time to write. I think they are destined to fail compared to fan contributed sites given this limitation, but that has nothing to do with deletionism.
light saber... yields no results
I quit
[Disclosure: I wrote some entries for the second edition]. One of the things about science fiction as a genre is that many of the authors in the ghetto ended up having a conversation with each other about science fiction's themes, tropes and iconography, to the point where a common vocabulary was created. Authors don't need to describe how a FTL drive works, or what an ansible does, they are part of the common discourse. Writing a story where the last two people left alive on Earth are called Adam and Eve is just so passe, yet newcomers to the genre still want to believe their nifty ideas are "new" (and sometimes they persuade their publishers, who sometimes can persuade the book-buying public. I have a copy of Theroux's O-Zone to give away if you want it). The value to me of the Encyclopedia was that its essays dissected the development and permutations of the discourse, pointing out the innovators and those who rode on their coat-tails. Also in the author entries the significant works were discussed, and the potboilers and contractual obligation works were left to "Other works" - an invaluable aid to where best to spend money. The Encyclopedia added to the language - the entry on Big Dumb Objects has resulted in the concept being part of the SF critic's critical toolkit, for example. From it too I noticed that so much of the borrowing that goes on in SF has a lag which sees film and TV genre (sci-fi) lagging behind the written word (SF). For example, Poul Anderson, Ursula Le Guin and Anne McCaffrey all ought to get credit for their conceptions without which Avatar falls apart. But as well as breadth and depth, it's the consistency of the critical voice of the Encyclopedia's editors that makes it an excellent critical work - as a reader I may agree or disagree with the editors' views, but at least I know how and why they take the angles that they do. And if I wish to disagree, then I had better get my thinking cap on.
Searched on star wars, and saw they didn't have the christmas special listed, as related TV show. This seems like a work in progress, but after 20 years you would think some of the main-stream fiction would be more complete.
*Sigh* I wouldn't have had to post this if you hadn't responded to an AC sitting at -1, so please stop it. DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!
"SyFy" is a rather gay trademark for a really bad "science fiction" TV network that has little science fiction at all, let alone good science fiction.
Giant cockroaches aren't sci-fi, even if Colm Meaney's in that awful movie (hey, he was in Die Hard II, too, and it wasn't sci-fi. And, why does he seem to die in every non-Star Trek movie he's in?)
As you pointed out, elves and trolls aren't sci-fi, either.
Free Martian Whores!
I can put something like this together in a month from code w better nav aond colors prolly
Maybe, but you'd need to write it so people could actually read it. A bright six year old could have posed a more literate comment.
Free Martian Whores!
Hollywood seems to be at a loss for good ideas for science fiction movies. They should review this encyclopedia and start looking up sci-fi greats like Isaac Asimov for suggestions for movies as opposed to churning out comic book fodder from Stan Lee.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
Hopefully it is Sci-Fi and not SyFy!
This is also good, at least very convenient.2012 cheap ugg
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