Can't combine zero copy works

Zero copy works don't show up on the combine/separate potentials page. They are visible on the editions page, but they can't be combined. Example: http://www.librarything.com/work/4011544/editions.

The work combination page does not come up at all. When trying to combine my Norwegian edition with others I push the organize button and this happens;http: //www.librarything.com/author/keyesmarian#organize
Is this a bug or are we not allowed to combine anymore?

>2 IaaS:

All the links for dong combination/separation work have been moved to the 'Improve this author' box to the right-hand side of the page. When you press the 'Organise' link, it just re-aligns the page to the top of the 'Improve this author box. You now need to choose the link under 'Combine/separate works'.

Yup, Noisy is right. I wanted to combine some books today too, and this caught me offgard. I really thought there was something wrong, until I finally saw the column on the right.

Also brought up as a discussion in Talk about LibraryThing:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/109752

No staff response there, either.

I posted about this in the thread about the new expressions-stuff before being directed here. Annoying bug, it is.

I found this new way to do it and it was one strange and no good way to come to the work combination page. It feels like a bug, whether it is a bug or not.

ETA? Tim, anyone? This is very, very annoying for us who combine alot/often.

I noticed this too. I've been cleaning up DVD collections of televisions shows and movies and find many of the later works being combined usually into the first season work. I separate them out one season at a time, they show up on the editions page as suggested combinations but when I go to combine them, they're not on the combine page and I wind up combining them manually.

Would make things a lot easier. I think I did a couple hundred of those fixes yesterday and about 90% of them, I did manually.

Sorry. Yes I noticed this too. I'm fully willing to (re)combine 0-copy works to their proper destinatiom. But if the system won't allow me, I'm not going to trace them down and do all kinds of LT gymnastics.

*bumpbump*

Bumping doesn't help when the bug is sitting in the "Needs Discussion" pile. When the staff has time to look at bugs they're looking in the "Reported" pile. I've changed the status to "Reopened," but even that won't get it a lot of attention. As far as I can figure out, to get a bug fixed that isn't in the "Reported" pile, you have to go whine about it on threads that Tim is posting to and then post here on a regular basis so that it's at the top of the "Reopened" stack. Otherwise, it's going to wait until the staff has time for a massive bug fixing weekend.

On this particular bug, since they seem to be working on the code related to combining in this new works/expressions/editions initiative, we might want to wait and see if it goes away when then new feature is released.

Okay, I won't "bump". I'll just ask: Will this ever be dealt with? Pleaaaaaase??? Please? Pretty please?

I'm aware that a lot of things are "in the works", but waiting indefinitely for a bug that *inhibits our ability to combine*, a bug that *screws with our ability to make LT better*... No. I'm not going to just sit back and wait indefinitely when I've had no indication that this particular bug in on their radar.

I'm going to keep posting about it until it gets acknowledged.

Well, I'll BUMP your non-bump. This is a pretty bad flaw considering how strongly Tim felt about the zero copy separations.

#15 I'll also bump - I'm finding more and more zero copies that are just floating out there.

16: Were you working from the editions page? I recently found out the hard way that what editions pages claim are zero copies very often aren't...

It's true that "Zero copy works don't show up on the combine/separate potentials page." Not sure if it's a bug or deliberate.

However, it *is* possible to combine them, just not via combine/separate page. Some combiners have a workaround, but they need to know what copies need to be combined.

My suggestion: if you are separating copies, keep track of the the URLs for any you can't combine into the proper work, and post them in the latest Help thread of the Combiners group. Someone there should be able to help.

(And, as Collectorator notes, the editions page is not always a good guide for whether some edition is zero-copy or not, so it's always a good idea to check the separated-out work pages and see what can be done with them.)

*bump* *again*
Anything?

Can we please, *please* just have some sort of response here? If this has to wait for some big change in order to be fixed, fine, but I'd really like to know!

Weekly bump (a few hours early). Anything? Hellloooo? Am I talking to the wall?

Well, you are not alone here. But some staff response would be nice.

Sorry. Not sure why the delay; it's on my list of things to ask Tim about.

We have a couple of workarounds on the combiners group but it would be nice to see it on the editions page.

25: Yeah, I'm aware of the workarounds, and if I could take the time/patience to learn them, I definitely would. For now, I'm just bookmarking the zero-copy works that I come across, as a reminder to combine them when it's possible.

I'm honestly not sure if this is an actual bug or if Tim actually meant to change things this way, but since it interfers with Combiner's hard work, and it directly interfers with my level of activity on this site, I keep pushing in hopes of some sort of response.

Thank you for poking in here, Jeremy.

26> It also interferes with what he told us to do, namely keep zero copy editions with the works they belong to. There's no way to do that using the actual LT UI, as far as I know.

@Heather19, you have comments turned off. If you're interested in a simple workaround, I have a simple method. Please drop me an email:

http://drmikessteakdinner.com/contact.html

It may take a few days to get back to you as I'm tied up on projects and a couple hundred emails behind.

Not a biggie if you;re not. Please reference this thread in your email.

Bump. Poke. Nudge. Whatever. Problem! Not resolved. How long has it been now we could combine zero-copies? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Thanks.

Fixed.

FIXED?! Is this a miracle??

Not completely related to this bug, but I'm trying to combine some zero-copies now, and I'm confused....

This 0-copy work: http://www.librarything.com/work/9925260

does not have the main work in the combine/separate potentials list. Likewise, it's not listed on the main work's potentials list, either. http://www.librarything.com/work/67077

I know there are ways to combine them anyways, and I can post in the Combiners group and ask for them to be combined.... But is there any reason why they aren't showing up in each other's lists?

I'm guessing this is because the title of the edition on the zero-copy work there has a pretty generic title before the colon. I don't think automatic combining suggestions take canonical titles into account.

This (LT ignoring stuff after colons) is a good reason to have zero copies on the author page too.

32> Combined, FWIW. (Hope I didn't mess up anybody's diagnostics ... .)

Is this broken again? I'm not seeing some zero copies on author combination pages.