August 14, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #44--August 14, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Important Announcements
Simon Says...
As everyone knows by now, we succeeded in buying, installing and configuring our new server--it's incredibly more powerful than the old one, and works under co-location services. This means that we are effectively our own ISP, and can make all the decisions about configuration, utitlities, security settings, maintenance schedules and so on. On the down side, we have to make all those decisions, and then execute them too. The main advantage is that we can come very close to having the same environment as DP-INT to mount the revised site code in.
Then, we re-mounted the old site code, tweaked a bunch of "back-room" bugs out of the way, and got it running again within about 24 hours. The site is back to running more or less as before--though there are a few problems, notably with login/cookie retention.
coachmike and I committed to solving two problems:
1) fixing the links from site pages, Project Pages and the Proofing/Formatting interfaces to FAQs and Guidelines (this bug has been with us for over a year, and can potentially muddle a new member royally); and
2) repairing the login/cookie problem.
Other (hopefully minor) problems: we'll have to live with for the remaining time until we mount the new site code.
The first of these 2 problems has now been fixed, I'm happy to say.
Some of you have had problems with things like avatar changes, and so on. Could I ask you to just leave everything the way it is for now, so you don't "lose" anything--we cannot be sure what is the status of some of the graphic utilties, and do not want to invest the time to find out.
Now the good news--we are within a few days to a week of being able to execute the site code synchronization we've talked about for so long!!
We just have to get a few more files checked by the Squirrels at DP-INT. The approach we're using involves using a facility called "gettext" to mark every text string in the DP-INT site code, then use a specialized .po table editor to "translate" some of those strings so we can have our own DPC flavour--actually adjusting spelling, grammar and content to give our site its unique character, while keeping exactly the same code as DP-INT. By this technique, we will no longer need to maintain separate code support effort, but can add our creativity to that of the folks at DP-INT. Of course, we'll also gain all of the features and improvments introduced "over there" since our code was developed in 2006.
Another advantage is that, once we've got everything up and running, I'll be able to mobilize a task force to create a French version of our site. While it's still a massive undertaking, essentially we just have to translate our .po file into French. In the same way, we can eventually offer the DPC site in other languages, too. And the members will be able to select their language of choice from the Member Preferences area, once the .po table translation is done.
So, sometime in the next 2 weeks, expect another period of down-time while we implement these code changes. But then, major improvments in our site's capabilities and features.
Meanwhile, we've re-configured all of the DP-INT FAQs and Guidelines into wiki pages, mounted them in our wiki, and Iona and others are working wonders to edit them for our DPC preferences, while keeping as close as possible to the DP-INT wording. They will also produce a list of differences between the 2 sites, for the benefit of recent "transferees" from DP-INT. I'm working on making sure all the internal links work. By Friday, the old FAQ Central page will be history--we will be 100% wiki-based for FAQs and Guidelines.
And, because the new server has a great deal more storage capability, we will soon begin to create the code for our long-promised "display site", intended to provide much better visibilty for the work done by our faithful members. We will also "rescue" e-books from other archives around the world that deal with Canadiana and matters of interest to Canadians, and begin to create a series of "Galleries of History" that will feature author bios, e-books and illos, book reviews and many other ideas, all linked to a kind of "Time-table of History", I will soon start a forum for discussion of these ideas, and invite you all to participate.
Now, back to the grindstone...
PLEASE NOTE: The "new" FAQs and non-English Guidelines, inlcuding the Proofreading Guidelines and Formatting Guidelines, that you can access through the new FAQ Central page contain DP-Int content. These are in the process of being revised for DPC.
Editorial
Exciting Times are Coming--There are important changes at DP Canada. Okay, so things are not happening as fast as last issue's Simon Says... seemed to indicate,... But the good times are coming, we'll just have to wait for a little bit longer.
PG-INT Copyright Clearances--CPers and PMs who apply to Simple Simon for copyright clearances need to check out his comments in the July 3 issue's Simon Says….
Server and site problems--We have our new server and, naturally, some problems did crop up though several of our old problems did disappear. As Simon notes above, we are getting closer to having the site upgrade proceed. "Fingers crossed" that things will go well with few problems. But, naturally, once we have the upgraded site code, if you do see any major problems, please send a PM to Simon to let him know. Or post in the Code Update Aug 2009 - reports of possible issues thread.
Guidelines Differences--As noted in prior issues, some decisions do need to be made if we want our Guidelines to be closer to those of DP-Int notwithstanding that we are a UTF-8 site. Though we don't want to change our decision about ellipses (i.e., matching the scan)--that is something that many DPC and DP-Int DPers do like. We're working on trying to get closer to DP-Int's without losing our DPC flavour.
Checklists--As promised several months ago, Simon was producing basic checklists for DPers--though he has taken a short break while the site code is being updated. He started with PPing basic checklists for simple projects: he has done checklists for startup, text version, HTML version, HTML Tables, "illustrations"--for PPers and CPers and CSS. The final item on Simon's PPing list is "tools for PPers": sounds interesting. He should be back at it once the site upgrade no longer occupies his time.
Simon has created a wikipage (linked to the main DPC Wiki) for the Checklists for New PPers. He has included the checklists that he has done so far. You can see from the Table of Contents what he plans for future checklists.
Any and all comments and/or questions from PPers are requested and welcome. Anyone else can comment as well. Send any questions or comments to Simple Simon.
Once the PPing checklists are done, he'll do some for CPing and PMing.
ÜberProjects--see the updates below. For those that are interested, Simon has decided that he's going to post periodicals to PG-Int as well since the ones we are doing are all pre-1923. It will also give DPC work greater coverage.
Check out the list of "possible future articles" at the end of the newsletter--are you interested in contributing or do you know of someone who could, or would like to, contribute, we'd love to have your article and/or thoughts. And you can do so anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Guideline Differences--See article at beginning of the April 10 issue.
Combined Proofing and Formatting Guidelines-- The eventual "combined guidelines" will be a very summarized version, not a complete document--but it's a huge task, which is the reason for the delay in issuance, among other tasks that are keeping Simon very busy. Even DP-INT has no such animal--so we can't copy theirs. Once it is drafted, Simon will ask for review by experienced proofers and foofers to ensure that it is understandable--that is, not confusing or missing some extremely important rule.
New DPC site code--It's almost here....
ÜberProject #1: Chronicles of Canada
There continue to be lots of spaces for volunteers to PM, PP and even CP. To see the current status of the volumes, check out the ÜberProject wiki page for The Chronicles of Canada here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Chronicles_of_Canada.
- De2164 and IonaV are doing the prep on the rest of the volumes. Sufficient PMs have volunteered--we just need PPers, but the volumes can be picked up from the PP pool when they have completed the rounds unless there is a volume that a PPer really wants to do--in that case let the PM know sooner rather than later.
- We've arranged to get "mint condition" copies of the full set and so will be able to get good scans of all the maps and illustrations as well as picking up missing pages (if any). Thank you to hugger1935 for the use of the books.
- Volumes 4 and 12 have been split into multiple parts and are being used for BEGIN projects. A number of parts of each volume are sitting in P1: Waiting (English BEGIN) until they are needed; several parts are currently in various rounds undergoing proofing or formatting; and several parts of each volume have made it through to PPing though they won't be finalized until all parts are done--that may take awhile depending on how many newbies we get.
- Volumes 10 and 31 are in P1: Waiting, Volumes 7 and 15 are in P1: Available, Volumes 14 and 32 are in P2: Available, Volumes 6 and 9 are in F2: Available; Volumes 11 and 21 are available for Post-Processing; Vols. 3 and 18 have completed PPing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue.
- PP standards have been set and the books do not have anything extremely difficult at all. Check the Chronicles wiki page for the PP standards. Some of the standards for PPing have been updated.
- Volumes 13, 17 and 24 are being done at DP-Int since the authors of these volumes are out of DPC's copyright purview. They will be posted to PG-Int in due time. For those that are interested, the books are all in the P3 waiting queue.
- Seven volumes have been posted to PGC:
- Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History, A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada,
- Volume 2: The Mariner of St Malo: A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier,
- Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: a Chronicle of New World Feudalism,
- Volume 8: The Great Fortress: A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760,
- Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A chronicle of the Union of 1841, and
- Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702, our first, is currently in F2: Available. Simple Simon is the PM and has decided that he will definitely PP this first volume, though he says that he will undoubtedly seek help from someone fluent in French to "look over his shoulder" on that side of things. He'll probably do the same for other languages as well.
Vol. 66: Illinois, Louisiana, Iroquois, Lower Canada, 1702-1712, our second, is in F2: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
Vol. 67: Lower Canada, Abenakis, Louisiana; 1716-1727 is now in P1: Available.
A set of standards has been determined and added to the Project Comments. An ÜberProject wiki page for Jesuit Relations has been created. It includes the basic instructions for proofing and formatting.
ÜberProject #3: Governor General's Award Books
Warmheart has created an ÜberProject page for this uberproject. The page looks very good and has lots of links. You can see the details of what she has completed to date here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Governor_General%27s_Literary_Awards Check it out, you might find something interesting there....
There are only a couple of books that are available since many of the authors are still alive--ah, well, we'll get them eventually. :)
ÜberProject #4: Periodicals
Graham's Magazine is the first part of our ongoing periodicals ÜberProject. All the first year's volumes are either in process or completed. There are three issues currently undergoing proofing or formatting with three in Post Processing. Six issues have been posted to PGC and/or PG-Int.
Year two will be coming in due course.
Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
Our Young Folks, An illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls; Issued monthly; Publication Dates: January 1865 thru October 1873 when it merged with St. Nicholas.
Three issues are in PP, three issues are undergoing proofing or formatting. Warmheart also has two in P1: Waiting, and three of the first year are in prep. Vol. 1, issue 1 has been posted to Project Gutenberg Canada.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
Scientific American--these are very early issues, too--from 1846. The first issue has now been posted. I hope Simon has more being prepped for proofing. :wink:
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American. I've also been told that Tizz has agreed to co-PM/PP it.
The Maple Leaf--This is a Canadian juvenile periodical published between 1852 and 1854. Susan and IonaV are going to share the duties of PMing. Iona is handling the prep, Susan has downloaded the scans and will do the PPing. They are hoping to get it into the rounds within the next week or so.
A wikipage has been created: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/The_Maple_Leaf
Remember, these aren't the only periodicals that we can do--there are lots of others out there and some that are very different than "Graham's". Is there one that you'd like to do? Suggestions for favourite OLD periodicals are always welcome, but they must meet 3 criteria:
- published before 1860 to avoid the need for copyright checking
- good quality scans of a reasonable number of issues (preferably in whole volumes=a year)
- interesting content, out of the ordinary
ÜberProject #5: Works by Charles Dickens
Simple Simon and IonaV are Dickens fans. We know that there are many more out there. Although there are some of Dickens' works on the other PG sites, some of it is text only. We've got early editions of those books with illustrations as well as stories that have not yet been posted. As well, there are letters and essays and ...
- Bleak House, the original version illustrated by "Phiz", is in prep.
- The Mystery of Edwin Drood is currently in F2: Available.
- A Christmas Carol is in post processing.
- Two short stories for our anniversary blitz are posted to our wiki (http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Dickens_%22First_Anniversary%22_project): The Christmas Tree and What Christmas is as we get older. They will be posted to PG Canada with other Dickens' short stories.
More details and an ÜberProject wiki page to come.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 713 members. Welcome to all new members; I hope you find some projects that you will enjoy doing. Many of our members are also members of DP-Int/US and/or DP Europe--we welcome them and thank them for all their continued support and interest in DPC. (Numbers are accurate up to "press" time.)
| New | |
|---|---|
| August 2009 | 0 |
| July 2009 | 16 |
| 2009 Q2 | 55 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 713 |
Milestones
We are going to use this space to "celebrate" notable milestones achieved by a member, team, group or project. For example, we'll report when a member completes 5,000 pages in any one round; then we'll let you know when they've done 10,000 pages and so on.
The "team" numbers are the cumulative totals for each round for each member while they are members of a particular team. So that's why, the team pages go up whenever a team member's totals increase. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 40,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2'
Completed 35,000 pages in a round:
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- Team USA in P3
- Foofers' Corner in F2
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- De2164 in F1
- Team Canada in P2
- Team German in F2
- Foofers' Corner in F1
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Adair in F1
- Daniel G in P1
- rcool in P1 and P2
- snowseraph in P1 and P2
- stygiania in F2 NEW!!!
- supo88 in P2
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- Team USA in P2 and F2
- Team Canada in P3 and F1
- Team German in P3
- Infomaniacs in P3
- Foofers' Corner in P2
- P3 Pros in P3
- DPing with Cats in P2 and F1
And how many pages have been done in each of the rounds? Naturally, F2 will be at the bottom since they are the last round that gets the projects before PPing and P1 will be on top since they get to start all the projects. :grin: Another consideration is that P3 or F2 stats may be slightly smaller if the PM/PPer has skipped his/her/their project through either one or both of those rounds. So let's see where each round was at the end of July:
- P1 completed over 100,000 pages
- P2 completed over 89,000 pages
- P3 completed over 79,000 pages
- F1 completed over 81,000 pages
- F2 completed over 64,000 pages
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
We're almost half way through August ... P3 is in the lead, closely followed by F1 and P1, then F2, P2 is trailing. Maybe some of those speedy P3s should help by doing some P2 work so they don't get left behind....
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| July goal | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| July final | 6,065 | 4,500 | 4,463 | 5,397 | 4,314 |
| July final % | 177.86% | 131.96% | 143.97% | 158.27% | 139.16% |
| August goal | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| *August to date | 2,799 | 1,451 | 2,829 | 2,858 | 1,966 |
| August to date % | 82.08% | 42.55% | 91.26% | 83.81% | 63.42% |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PG Canada or PG-International
At press time, we had 208 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 3 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 167 Silver Star projects in post processing and 146 Bronze Star projects which are currently undergoing proofing or formatting. For more details about these projects, please see the listings on the bottom of the DP Welcome page.
User Team Talk
Have you checked out our user teams? To check out the teams or to join one go to: User Teams. The Team threads are located under Proofing Team Talk. Is there a team that you'd like to see? You can create a team from the link on the User Teams page--you might be surprised by who shows up to join you.
We currently have 24 teams; more are always welcome.
Possible Future Articles
This is YOUR newsletter: yes, there are forum posts and user team posts, but is there something that you want to tell the whole DPC community? You are allowed to brag here. You can also be anonymous if you choose ... we won't tell.
- Tips or Hints: for those people who do/did a lot of proofing and/or formatting on DP-Int/US &/or DP-Eur, do you have any tips or "rules" that you follow to help yourself while you proof or format? Even a re-wording of a guideline that helps you remember how to do something specific.
- Tell us why you joined DPC.
- Quotable Quotes: have you seen a thought-provoking quote that is relevant to the DP Community while you were doing your proofing that you just had to pass on?...
- The most interesting, outrageous, or strangest line you proofed: before it was proofed (if that was the outrageous or strange part) and what it was after proofing (please do not submit obscene language, it will not be published).
- New projects: PMs is there a series of books or books by a very prolific author that you'd like to do?--let us know so that we can help pass the word to the proofers so they'll be there to jump in and work on them.
- Kudos, Bouquets & Compliments: are there any DPers that you would like to give special thanks and/or recognition to: a mentor who gave you lots of guidance, a PPer that made your project into a very wonderful looking book for posting to PG, a CPer or image/text preparer who went the extra little bit to provide you with clean scans, well OCR'd text, or good illustrations for your project, another DPer who made you feel really welcome or provided you with some good advice or....
- "Guest articles" by anyone and everyone who wishes to....
