As we all know, people post continuously asking about author, author_sort, FN LN, and LN FN. Part of the problem (but by no means all) comes from the fact that the people aren't consistent when they enter authors names. Both forms (FN LN & LN, FN) are used.
The default author_sort algorithm is 'invert'. This means that the author Joe Blogs will produce an author_sort of Blogs, Joe. It also means that the author Blogs, Joe will produce an author_sort of Joe, Blogs,.
My question: should we change the default to 'comma'? This setting handles both FN LN and LN, FN, producing the right value (LN, FN) in both cases. My suspicion is that making this change would dramatically cut down the questions.
The major negative that I see is that using 'comma' will get names like "Joe Blogs, Jr" wrong. Of course, the invert setting also gets it wrong (Jr, Joe Blogs) unless there is no space after the comma.
And yes, I am prepared to implement this.
Comments?
(@kiwidude: I know you want a wizard and the like. This change isn't intended to make your wish go away. My hope is that it will reduce confusion in a reasonable number of cases.)