Magazine Database - Pages field?

[Phillyman]

I am thinking about adding an additional field to the Magazine Database to allow page counts of each magazine. Any thoughts on this?

[RetroDefense]

This might get a little tricky. Sometimes mags include ad pages in their page count, sometimes they don't. And then there's the issue of any supplements, posters, half-pages, etc included with the mag.

On the other hand, if you recorded actual content page count and total page count, you'd be able to calculate a content/advertisement ratio. So we'd finally see what we're getting with those mega-sized issues of EGM.

Just some thinking-out-loud here, but yeah, if page counts are added, I would definitely have some guidelines in place ahead of time to define exactly what you're looking for.

[Phillyman]

I added the pages field the other day to the Magazine Database. Good point about where we should start counting. Honestly I would say the following. Find the first numbered page, then count back to the front cover. If the cover is page 1 GREAT. If the cover is not page 1, add how many pages are missing, then do the same with the back cover. Ideally page 1 should be the front of the magazine, the back cover should be the last page. If the cover is a trifold, it should count those pages as well. In the end, I think the page number should match the number of scanned images inside the .CBR file. That way if we get a statistics page, we could count how many pages Retromags has scanned

I will look into the advert page field soon. Would be nice to know which magazines had the highest ratio of adverts to articles.

[E-Day]

Usually magazines count all the ads in the magazine as pages, except for those thicker paper/cardboardy ones for subscription cards of BMG Music club mailing cards. And some magazines counted the front and inside covers as pages (EGM did this), while others (GamePro) did not.

[Ferneu]

I do not want to sound offensive but, have you ever stopped to think about all the trouble you guys will have for something that (I think) no one will care about?

It might be cool having that info for completeness sake, but that is pretty much the only reason I could come up with.

I mean does the number of pages of the next A Song Of Ice And Fire book matter? Will you decide if you are going to read it or not based on that?

[Phillyman]

I do not want to sound offensive but, have you ever stopped to think about all the trouble you guys will have for something that (I think) no one will care about?

It might be cool having that info for completeness sake, but that is pretty much the only reason I could come up with.

I mean does the number of pages of the next A Song Of Ice And Fire book matter? Will you decide if you are going to read it or not based on that?

I can see where your coming from, its just a simple field that is not "required" to be filled out. Technically on Amazon they do list how many pages each book is, along with the weight of the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Song-Fire-Book/dp/0553593714/

• Mass Market Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Mti Rep edition (March 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553593714
• ISBN-13: 978-0553593716
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

The most important parts of the database are the covers, dates and contents field. Fields like pages, price, etc......are just there for completion. Maybe an occasional person will want to know which month had the shortest issue, or the longest. If it gets used, great.....if it doesn't......I can remove it with 2 clicks.

[Ferneu]

Just to be clear, it wouldn't bother me at all. I was just thinking about the trouble you guys would have.

[Areala]

Speaking as someone who archives these things, I like having it there, and it is important for collectors to be able to check page counts to know they've got a complete magazine. Staple-bound publications can easily lose the middle pages, and if all of them are ads and the mag doesn't number its pages, you'd have no idea you were missing one. Same with perfect-bound mags: it's simple for someone to cut out a page close to the spine and if it's not part of an article, a casual read might not reveal anything missing.

It's also helpful information to be able to see, historically, where the best and leanest periods for a given magazine were. Did the magazine add 12 pages to each issue for one particular year? That means circulation was up, more advertisers bought in, and they could up the page count. Magazine went from 120 pages down to 80? They were hurting, and circulation numbers were likely falling. Plus it's nice from a trivia perspective to be able to say what the largest and smallest page-counts for a publication were.

It's not really any trouble to add this info in either. Just yesterday I went back through all 46 issues of "Computer Gaming World" I had indexed and added in their page counts. Took me maybe 10 minutes, and now those entries are that much more complete. Easy-peasy.

*huggles*
Areala

[Phillyman]

Pages field now shows up on the records

[RetroDefense]

I like the idea of using the page count as a way to calculate a total - to know how much content has been archived here at RetroMags.

I also like the idea of using the CBR/CBZ scan total - that'd be so much easier in the long run. Yeah, there will always be some +/- thanks to subscription cards, posters, missing covers, missing pages, gatefold covers, etc, but it'd be close. And it'd avoid all of the inconsistencies introduced with a magazine publisher's own self-determination of what is and isn't a proper page. At the very least, it'd accurately reflect the combined effort all of RetroMags' hard-working scanners have been putting in.

For magazines not already scanned, those page counts can be ignored easily enough when calculating RetroMags' scan total.