Re: [mb-users] Should catalog numbers be capitalised?

On 09/22/2014 09:46 AM, lixobix wrote:
> Considering that we standardise the capitalisation for artist, release, a=
nd
> title, I don't see why we would then decide that catnos are an exception,
> and should be added as on the release. =85 At present the principle is to=
 standardise, so
> that principle should apply to catnos.

Well, even there our standardization is not absolute, as in the example
of http://musicbrainz.org/release/92b36219-760b-4f32-94f7-4e323e6d431d
(from

Classical style says to use the title as printed or works as credited =97
no standardization because it leads to confusion when you have hundreds
of releases with the same standardized title.

> It
> should be possible to view a label's releases as sorted by catno. which
> would not work correctly if there were inconsistencies.

Caller#6 wrote:
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's a way to normalize =

> catnos by machine. e.g. you can't just remove all spaces and dashes. A =

> dash might be a spacer, might indicate a range or a part number.

Is there any reason we can=92t sort by a machine-normalized catno while
still retaining the as-on-cover catno for display?

I=92m also not sure that there=92s any value in trying to have a normalized
catno, when most any catno 'series' will be scattered over a variety of
MB-labels. Consider http://reports.mbsandbox.org/report/38/view =97 all of
those are 'Phonogram-associated' catalog numbers, but they=92re scattered
across perhaps a score of different imprints.

Then consider
http://musicbrainz.org/label/ce24ab18-1bd6-4293-a486-546d13d6a5e2 (one
of those Phonogram-assocated labels).

How can we usefully sort it in either case, when a single MB-label is
going to have a dozen different catalog number formats, and a single
catalog is going to be spread across a dozen different MB-labels?

I think whatever problem we=92re trying to solve, is not going to be
solved by making sure capitalization and spacing matches across
different releases, especially when that also hurts our ability to
distinguish releases.