Let me be clear about something. Nobody here said they wouldn't approve Flagweaver's change requests because they didn't like him or because of his less-than-polite responses.

He clearly said "If you don't have the book, THEN DON'T APPROVE IT!" Most of us don't read Dynamite books. Thus ... if he doesn't want people who read/have the book to approve them, they're gonna sit in the queue indefinitely.

Now. While we strive to have covers in a "correct order," the fact is that Dynamite does not label their books. They have a collage of all the variant covers in the back of their books, but NONE OF THEM say "A" "B" "C" etc. They may have a percentage "25%" but they are NOT labeled.

Ah! You're right! I'll bet it's because we didn't have them labeled right. Alex Ross' ego was offended that he might not be the A variant every time, so they had to start labeling them. :)

Saying that you strive to make the database as accurate as possible is somewhat disingenuous. Last week I submitted two title corrections and both were rejected without any reason given. That means that the title indicia, the publisher, Overstreet, ComicbookDB, Mike's Amazing World of Comics, The Grand Comic Book Database, Collectorz and a host of non-CCL affiliated stores all have it wrong and the CCL database is the only one who lists it correctly. Forgive me, but I trust all those others before I trust some anonymous approver.

Then when I point out that variant covers are incorrect and inquire how to provide the correct ones, I am told that that is not how it is done, that the system isn't broke and doesn't need fixing and that it is a pain to do, especially since it for a crap publisher with a small readership. Some offer to help, and for that I thank you, but how long before you get tired of being corrected and let things continue as before because there are still many errors in the database? EVERY book I have from Dynamite has ALL their variants in the back, so it is not a new thing. Naturally, it then devolves into the "we do it for free blah blah blah" mantra, though I doubt anyone holds a gun to your head. And, quite frankly, even if you do it for free, don't get upset when you are called out for beng lazy because correcting your mistakes is to much of a pain and inconvenience. Free doesn't, or shouldn't, equal laziness.

I help maintain my company's database, so having the correct information is important to me and I am constantly having to deal with bad data. If I pay for a service like CCL, I expect the information presented to be as accurate as possible, not just what some small group of people think is important enough to be accurate. I don't care if the title is the crappiest ever published and only one person reads it, the information should be as accurate as possible. That is not being "slavish," it being correct.

Last week was the first time I ever submitted any change requests for this site. Two were accepted, two were rejected for no reason and my attempt to help improve CCL was met with derision. I've been on CCL for two and a half years and I really like it, but recent experience has soured that because I thought I was getting an accurate database, not one filled with errors and dependent upon the inclinations of a small group of people.

Allow me, if I may, to speak specifically to the issue of Dynamite covers that Flagwaver has raised.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am the one who usually enters all of the Dynamite issues into the database. I do this before the issues are actually released. For this week's issues, I had the issues in the database by Monday night. I do this for two reasons: 1) I want sellers to be able to list these issues for sale as soon as possible on Wednesdays, and 2) I want collects who purchases these issues to be able to add them to their collections as soon as possible. Before I started doing this there were weeks where Dynamite issues didn't get into the database until days after their release... sometimes not making it in to the DB until more than a week after they hit shelves.

Since I'm adding issues before their release, I don't have access to the back page of those issues to verify the cover orders (and as has been noted in other posts in this thread, Dynamite chooses not to label their covers with letters like IDW, Image, or Aspen do). Since I don't buy many Dynamite titles (I do pick up a few), I still don't have access to the back pages to verify the order. As I mentioned earlier, I am very willing to rearrange the order of covers when a change request is submitted or when someone contacts me with a PM (as are most of the other Approvers - none of whom are anonymous - they can all be found here).

If you, or anyone else, took my comments about about being a volunteer as an excuse to be lazy or half-assed in my work, I sincerely hope that you'll reconsider that. I take great pride in what I do here. I mentioned the Approvers' volunteer status simply to point out that we're all doing this because we care. Nor have I ever denigrated Dynamite, its titles, or its readers in this thread. Flagwaver, you have my invitation to work directly with me to help make sure that each Dynamite title has its covers in the correct order. Feel free to send me a PM as often as you'd like on this topic and I will be happy to help. The same goes for anyone else who happens to be reading this thread. I will treat your requests to respect and seriousness. I hereby give you permission to hold me accountable to this. The only thing I ask in response is respect in return and verifiable information on which to base an approval or rejection of a CR.

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"When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder!" ~WJ Slim

Why? I know for a fact that both the Grand Comic Book Database and ComicbookDB are edited by ... gasp! ... random, anonymous people.