Indexing

Introduction to Indexing

Indexing is the primary way of contributing data to the GCD. For each comic, an indexer records at minimum the issue's number, date, price and page count as well as the types, titles and credits for each story and cover. A wealth of additional information, including character appearances, genres and plot synopses, may optionally be entered.

Important Note: Contributors cannot copy existing, published indexes without the permission of the copyright holder. Copyright laws and good manners prohibit such actions. If you have obtained permission, you must note the source of the material in your index. Cover scans from other sources (web sites or compilation CD's) are not allowed unless you have obtained their permission. Cover scans with watermarks are never allowed. All efforts should be made to scan your own covers. Check with gcd-main if in doubt.

Indexing is done through our Online Indexing system of web forms by logging in through the front page. It is currently not available as we transfer the website and complete a new version of it but should return by the middle of November 2009. An older method, known as Offline Indexing, involved text files (a.k.a. "Flat Files") and is not currently supported.

What is a "Full Index" as opposed to a "Drive-by Index"?

A full index has, at minimum: Titles, page counts, credits (even if unknown) and features for each of the stories (either text or comic) and for the cover of the comic. It does not need to have letter pages, promos or ads, though these are definitely desirable. It also doesn't have to have characters, synopses or notes about reprints, though these are definitely desirable too. The more information, the better. (This definition should be reviewed and approved).

A drive-by index is information added that is not complete. Something from the full index criteria is missing, or only one story has been indexed. This information is desired too, as it may make making a full index easier for someone who wants to do that.

How do I get started as an indexer?

First you need an Online Indexing account. There is a link on the front page to register [1] through the website.

Image:GCD_Account_Creation.jpg (click to enlarge)

The information you will be asked to provide is:

• Your email address. It will be used as your user name.
• Your password
• Your name that you would like to be credited by. Preferably your real name.
• Your country
• Your (current) e-mail address
• The languages you read (multiple languages can be selected)
• Your comic book interests (not necessary, but we like to know a bit about you so we can pair you up with an editor with similar interests if possible)

Do not use a sensitive password as the system is not designed for high security.

You will receive an email with how to confirm your account, and then you can start entering info into the database!

An alternate way of registering is to email the Account Admin with the above information.

How do I learn how to index?

The most up-to-date documentation is the Formatting Documentation on this wiki. There are some older documents outside this wiki that you might find if we haven't hunted down all the old links yet. In the event of a disagreement, the wiki wins :-) However, the formatting docs are a bit dry, so...

There is a short tutorial to guide you through the basics. Unfortunately, it's one of those slightly out of date documents. For example, the Tutorial tells you to leave a field blank if it doesn't apply (like color on the cover in the example), but the proper thing to do is type "none" (without the quotes).

How do I create my first index?

• Log in at http://www.comics.org, using your Username/email and Password (see above).
• Find out if the comic is available for indexing by searching the database using the search form on the Online Indexing screen (not the regular GCD search form).
• If the series you want to index is not listed in the database or if the issues are shown in white when you check the "See index matrix" link, then they should be available for you to make a reservation.
  • See How to Report a Missing Series if the series is not in the database.
• Reserve the issues you need using the "Reserve New Books" button.
• Index the comic, following the directions in the Tutorial and Formatting Documentation. Then hit the "Submit Index" button at the bottom of the screen.
• First time indexers will be contacted by one of the Editors at the GCD to be mentored and to help along with some of our more specific formatting. We require the data to be in one format so that it is easily searchable, please don't be put off by some of the seemingly strange things we require to be done, once you've done it a couple of times it becomes old hat!

What happens after I submit my index?

After you submit the index, an editor will check the data for errors and proper formatting, and then approve the index (usually within a week). If there is a problem, you will usually be contacted by e-mail for comment. (Minor errors, such as typos, may be fixed by the editor without contacting you.) Do not be discouraged if you get a list of stuff to be corrected back. The editors can be a picky bunch, and they have to be. We need the data in the database to be consistent for future uses and for searching. After it is approved, you should check your index. After the index has been approved, use the GCD search form at: http://www.comics.org/ and check your index to see if any errors got missed. If there are any errors, please file a report at http://errors.comics.org (or re-reserve the comic and correct it yourself).

What are common errors for people's first indexes?

• Mis-entering (or misunderstanding) the Keydate is common.
• Not putting ?s on data which is not known is common.
  • All creator fields (except 'script' for covers and 'editor' for sequences other than the first cover) must have a name, "?" or have the "No Script" (for example) box checked.
• Not using [] and () correctly.
  • [] is for alternate names, such as character secret identities, writer/artist pen names or studio names. Pen names are noted like this: [as Jane Doe] while character names do not use "as".
  • () is for explanatory notes, such as the fact that this is the introduction of a character, or that one artist credited for pencils drew only the first half of the book, while the other artist drew the second half.
  • [] is also generally used for information not present in the comic, such as a made-up story title.
• Using unapproved genres. See the Official Genres List
• Using commas instead of semi-colons to separate data.
• Missing page counts for one or more sequences.
  • Don't forget to put the page count of the whole book in the first cover record, and only the first cover record.

The details for this are covered on the Formatting Documentation page.

What's up with all these crazy rules anyway?

Currently most of the fields in the database are free-form text. In the future we will change this so that they are more structured, and then the system will handle a lot of the formatting automatically. For instance, right now you must put a semi-colon between multiple pencilers for a story, and that all gets stuffed in one field and displayed with the punctuation you used. In the future, each penciler will be a separate credit, and you will not need to worry about what sort of punctuation to put between them - the system will add it automatically. For now please bear with our rules as following them will help us move to an improved system more quickly!