Forum:Making pages for magazine issues with no official issue numbers

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Opening

I've been slowly giving individual pages to the issues of Radio Times in recent weeks (beginning primarily with issues that have not yet been documented on the existing overview pages), using both the BBC's programme index and my own calculations to get the exact issue numbers.

At some point (pending your guys blessing), I'd like to go in and do the same to the various issues of TV & Satellite Week that give extensive coverage to DW media.

There are, however, a couple of obstacles in doing so, but I'll only be addressing the most troublesome of the two; there are no official issue numbers to speak of.

TV&SW, at least the issues from the last decade that I have access to, do not number their issues anywhere within. It's also impossible to calculate issue numbers because I cannot find an exact launch date for the magazine.

How would you recommend I proceed here? WaltK ☎ 21:43, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Discussion

TV & Satellite Week

Would the cover date work? It's not ideal, but it's an option. Cookieboy 2005 ☎ 22:04, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

I did consider that, but how would it be rendered? WaltK ☎ 22:08, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

I suppose stuff like "TV&SW 26 March - 1 April 2005"? Cookieboy 2005 ☎ 21:15, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

I'd prefer something more simplified, like using the issue's publication date as a base, allowing for titles like TV&SW 23MAR05. WaltK ☎ 03:22, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

Hey, so my absolute ideal way of doing this would be to give TV & Satellite Week issue numbers, which I would be able to do if I knew exactly when the first issue came out, which is hard to determine.

All I know so far is that the magazine launched in 1993. I've managed to find two issues from that year listed on eBay. Both issues have a big "NEW" slapped onto their front covers, with the earliest of these issues being cover dated 8-14 May 1993. Whether or not this particular issue is, itself, the first issue is anyone's guess. At any rate, the issue launched sometime between 1 January and 8 May. Ehhhh…

If anyone has any suggestions as to where to dig up more info, that would be just great. WaltK ☎ 17:02, 23 March 2024 (UTC)

Solution

I've been thinking it over, and I've decided that doing my own numbering system for the TV&SW issues would be a better way to go than the cover date titles on the grounds that they just don't look good. My ideal way of doing it would be to just assign issue numbers based on when the first issue was released, which is sadly not possible (the most online research has yielded is that it launched in 1993, with no specific date. I even went and grabbed the earliest issue I could find off eBay in hopes that it would give me a lead, with no luck).

So I think the next best thing would be to take the Titan Comics approach and reset issue numbers by calendar year. Ergo, TV&SW 23 Dec - 5 Jan 2024, the most recent issue to contain DW content, would be TV&SW23 50. WaltK ☎ 18:42, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

I think this is a good compromise for this very unusual scenario. Bongo50 ☎ 20:43, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

I was going to suggest the same think. Can I please recommend TVSW23 50, though?
× SOTO (☎/✍/↯) 21:03, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Without the "&"? Fine with me. WaltK ☎ 21:46, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

TV Times

I decided to go ahead and do the TV Times issues I have access to, thinking it'd be much simpler because their DWU coverage is much lighter, and I have an idea of how their issue numbering works…

Instead, I'm two issues in and I'm already freaking tired. TV Times is one of those publications that resets their issue numbering each calendar year, further dividing issues by "volume" in the process. Okay, so the volume number refers to the calendar year, that's doable, I think to myself…

And then I discover that the volume number actually changes twice a year. Oh, the individual issues still reset after 52, but the volume changes every four months or so. Volume 224 Issue 14 could be followed by Volume 225 Issue 15, for example.

"Ooooh so it changes after a set number of issues" I think but ooooooooohhhhhhh no that would be too easy! One year, the first volume switch-over could be with the 14th issue, another year it could be with the 15th, or 13th, and so on, with seemingly no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

This inconsistent way of doing things makes it near on impossible to properly calculate issue and volume numbers for earlier issues that PocketMags (the app I view these magazines on) has access to, or the more recent issues that no longer list their issue and volume numbers within.

It's a long shot, but would anybody - anyone at all - happen to have any idea what the hell these volume numbering shenanigans are all about, like if there is actually some kind of pattern to it that I haven't caught on to?

Alternatively; could I maybe just ignore this quirk altogether and go by the Titan Doctor Who approach and split every 52 issues by year instead, making the current issue at this moment… [counts internally] Year 59 Issue 14 (TVTY59 14). WaltK ☎ 16:46, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Now that I've now pretty much nailed down how to handle the TVSW issues, let's get TVT sorted out too. Long story short: …can I just use the same system for this one too? WaltK ☎ 22:18, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Seems sensible to me. Consistency is good. --Scrooge MacDuck ☎ 22:57, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Should I stick to the mag's pre-2018 precedent of numbering the Christmas issues twice (51/52 or 52/1 depending on what side of the new year it ends on), or should it be exactly as TVSW? WaltK ☎ 00:19, 9 April 2024 (UTC)