Unified Titles

Some of the lists of objects to add are getting very out of hand - many things have multiple editions, versions revisions etc, and they're all being listed separately. I understand why this is happening, however it makes adding things a less than pleasurable experience.

Could this be solved in a similar fashion as Last.fm where they let people recommend 2 objects be merged, and then people can vote, and discuss if the objects should be merged.

This could be taken a step further, once objects have been merged, the different versions could be available within the object, so people could choose which version they have, yet everyone who has a version of that object is listed as owning it.

I really hope that's more clear than it appears to be :)

Personally, I prefer to be able to find the editions to match the ones I actually own, and where I can't do that, I usually become unreasonably pissed off (for example: how come I can't find the edition of The Stand that matches the one I have, even though I can for most other Stephen King books from the same print run?). I reckon searching by ISBN might be somewhat faster, and could solve the problem you mention, if I've read it correctly.

I do agree that searching through the various editions can be a bt of a chore at times, and your solution (again, if I've read and understood correctly) seems a good idea.

Duplicate entries are definitely a problem and, for more popular works (again, The Stand seems an excellent example, so let's stick with it, eh?), the number of foreign language editions cropping up that need to be sifted through can be a minor annoyance. Perhaps maybe we could only see foreign language editions if we specifically look for them?

Yes I would like to do a system where the editions are merged and you can choose which one you own. This is not exactly simple though and I have to think carefully how to implement it.

I think it would be a much better experience for most if they were merged and as you said they could then pick their edition. Especially for those just setting up their collections because it's overwhelming now, some titles have way too many results and some look to be mistakes or doubles of the same book edition.

I'm finding that as I'm going through lists adding things, I've frequently forgotten if I've added something or not. And end up having to remove the item.

Last.fm has a very neat way of handling this, if I see an entry that belongs with another one, I can tell the system to merge them. Once the vote has passed, everyone who adds the merged item shows up as having added the main one. This merely needs to be extended to a 'Select Edition' page.

Searching for ISBN is fine if you actually have a physical copy; It doesn't work so well for stuff you've read, or in the case there is an electronic distribution (I'm thinking games / music)