Easy fix: I removed the "By" from the level select screen. It seemed preferrable to me to have no "by" in the author field compared to having two of them.
What do you expect users to put into the field now? With or without "by"?
I push for:
Tell authors to have only "Hans", not "by Hans", in author field.
Title/preview screen should silently discard "by "/"By " at beginning of author string.
Title/preview screen could then prefix the result with "By " if they want.
Remove "by Unknown Author" and add "Unknown Author" as the template entry.
Reasoning:
1. After all, the field is called author. "Hans" is an author, "By Hans" is not.
2. If something is mandatory, don't design the data such that the dat allows for violation of the requirement (no leading "By ").
3. Given that the preview screen has inserted "By " up to NL 12.04, I suppose many people will have put "Hans" into the field anyway, not "By Hans".
4. Avoid language dependency in data wherever avoidable ("by" is English).
I probably should have posted earlier.
-- Simon