December 4, 2009
From DPCanadaWiki
Volume 2, Issue #52--December 4, 2009
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Simon Says...
December 1st marked our Second Anniversary at DPC--many congratulations to everyone for a remarkable collection of achievements. Together, we've managed to:
- attract over 750 members
- post 250 e-books to the PG community
- weather several technical crises (including installing a new server)
- soldier through a series of technical glitches caused by incompatibility of the site code and our equipment
- survive a really nasty attack by malicious spam posters in our forums
- build new and extended skills
- publish 52 bi-weekly issues of the Beaver Bulletin (thanks, Quill!!)
- recruit a terrific team of PFs, Coordinators, and Forum Moderators--who make my work as SA totally enjoyable
- construct an active forum community, with lively discussions and good tempers
- maintain DPC as a fun place to be
- support each other through some trying times
- begin the conversion to a totally wiki-based help system
...and many more achievements--who would like to add to the list?
coachmike and I would like to announce the first "Member of the Year" award for 2009--the envelope, please.
And the winner is (drum roll) ... (Chef) Uwe-joachim!!! Uwe carried the F2 ball almost single-handedly through a period when that was absolutely necessary to keep the work-flow moving. And, despite the fact that we have gained several very experienced F2ers, and graduated our own "home-grown" foofers, too, Uwe is still the revered leader of our DPC foofer community. Thanks to Uwe for all he does for DPC and our projects!!
Starting in July, 2010, nominations will be opened for the 2010 Member of the Year Award--please send me a message stating your preference, with reasons, and the panel of judges will make an announcement at our next Anniversary. Perhaps you'd like to make suggestions about other ways we could celebrate when we reach that landmark.
I'm requesting all PMs to review the scans and text files of every page in each project, before it gets out of P1. We want to make sure that we don't have "broken" projects in P2 and beyond, because it gets much harder to fix them at that time. Learn to use the "fix page" routine, or ask for help.
The revised Formatting Guidelines are looking pretty good--I'll be opening them up for comments and suggestions in the next issue.
Lostpaces, our new friend who just joined us from DP-INT, has kindly offered to Mentor new PPers--do take her up on this offer, her skills and patience are amazing!!
Don't forget to visit the new F2 parlour forum thread, with Adair as Concierge--a great place to hone your foofing skills, and swap ideas about how to improve the foofing we do.
Time now for a couple of New Year's resolutions (take it easy, I don't mean something like JulietS's resolution last year). coachmike and I pledge to you all that (1) we will convert to the DP-INT site code, with all its features, sometime in the first quarter of 2010, and (2) we will launch the "display" site, to facilitate the featuring of all your hard work, in the second quarter of 2010.
These initiatives will open up many opportunities for experienced DPC members to take up new responsibilities, and expand their DP interests in almost any direction.
What's on your New Year's resolution list?
Cheers
Simple Simon
Editorial
DPC's 2nd Anniversary--Sometimes it's hard to know whether it feels like more or less than 2 years--especially when we're so busy. We've posted 250 projects to PGC and/or PG-Int. We've proofed and formatted over 500,000 pages. We have over 775 registered members--many of whom come from other DP sites.
I'm proud of what DPC has accomplished in its first 2 years of life.
The Beaver Bulletin--This is our 52nd issue; we've been going for 2 years now--it doesn't seem to be that long, does it? So what do you think of our newsletter? Is there something new you'd like to see, something that could be changed, drop a post in the Newsletter forum ( http://pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=188&sid=dd67edc2453d472102bacc7b396ec6b4 ) or send a PM to Quill. Comments and any necessary responses will be included in the next issue. You can remain anonymous if you wish.
But we'd really like to know how you think we're doing and if there are any changes that you'd like to see.
Calling all CPers / EMERGENCY--De2164 (DAvid) has asked for more projects since all he has in the P1 queue are multi-volume projects which have to wait their turn--so like "Old Mother Hubbard" his cupboard is bare. Please and thank you. If you are someone who is interested in becoming a CPer, there are lots of people who will help guide you. See the Providing Content forum.
Calling all Proofers--We need to get going on some of the projects to get them into the higher rounds. Maybe all proofers could commit to doing a few pages every week ... those poor F1s don't have many projects to choose from.
Draft Proofreading Guidelines--So have you had a chance to review the draft, revised Guidelines? What do you think of them now?
PLEASE NOTE: The "new" FAQs and non-English Guidelines, including the 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.
Formatting Guidelines--Simon and IonaV are working on Version 2 for the Formatting Guidelines.
Server and site issues--We've had our new server for 4 months now and, naturally, some problems did crop up though several of our old problems did disappear. We've had a forum for posting problems and concerns: Code Update Aug 2009 - reports of possible issues thread. Simon promises to review of all reported problems and concerns; then he'll report back as to what has been or will be done about them.
Naturally, if further problems do crop up, you can still add them to the forum thread or send a PM to Simon.
Checklists--Several months ago, Simon was producing basic checklists for PPers--though he has taken a break while other matters occupied 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. He also advises that there could be some slight changes to what he has done in order to integrate his lists with our new FAQ wiki pages.
Of course, eventually, checklists for CPing and PMing will eventually be done.
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--Once we get our Proofreading and Formatting Guidelines updated to go along with our upcoming site code upgrade, we intend to produce a wikipage with the differences. We're working on the Guidelines updates at this time and we hope to produce the "differences" page shortly thereafter.
New DPC site code--According to the Simon Says... article above, we could, hopefully, see it early in the New Year. My fingers are crossed.
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 7 and 10 are in P3: Available; Volumes 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 21, 31 and 32 are available for or in Post-Processing. There are several in New Project being prepared for the P1: Waiting queue with one or two yet to be prepped.
- 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.
- Nine volumes have been posted to PGC and/or PG-International:
- 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 3: The Founder of New France, A Chronicle of Champlain,
- Volume 5: The Seigneurs of old Canada: A Chronicle of New World Feudalism,
- Volume 8: The Great Fortress: A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760,
- Volune 18: The 'Adventures of England on Hudson Bay', A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North,
- Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas,
- Volume 27: The Winning of Popular Government: A Ahronicle 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, 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, 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 in P3: Available. Lots of "fun" with strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages.
Vol. 68: Lower Canada, Crees, Louisiana; 1720-1736 is in P1: Available. Again, lots of "fun" with strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages.
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 one issue currently undergoing proofing or formatting and one in post-processing. Ten issues have been posted. The second year has started now with three in the proofing rounds and three waiting.
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.
Six issues are in PP, three issues are undergoing proofing or formatting. Warmheart also has two 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. Simon has more being prepped for proofing.
We've started a wiki page for it: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Periodicals/Scientific_American.
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, The Original Manuscript has been posted to Project Gutenberg.
- 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.
ÜberProject #6: John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and military leader of Canada, and one of the true Canadian "Fathers of Confederation". This is NOT dull history either.
Projects about or by Simcoe in proofing and/or formatting rounds: 5; post-processing: 1.
Simon has more prepped or waiting to be prepped.
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 778 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 | |
|---|---|
| December 2009 | 4 |
| November 2009 | 20 |
| October 2009 | 22 |
| 2009 Q3 | 35 |
| 2009 Q2 | 55 |
| 2009 Q1 | 168 |
| 2008 total | 235 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 778 |
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 45,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 40,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2
- Foofers' Corner in F2 NEW!!!
Completed 35,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 30,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
- Team USA in P3
Completed 25,000 pages in a round:
- no one at present...
Completed 20,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1 and P2 NEW!!!
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- Foofers' Corner in F1
- LOTE Flotes my Bote in F2
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Bibi in P3
- De2164 in F1
- P3 Pros in P3
- Team Canada in F1
- Team German in F2
- Team USA in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Adair in F1 and F2
- Antigony in F1
- Daniel G in P1
- gmiller in P2
- hugger1935 in F1 and F2
- mcbax in P3
- Pippin in F1
- rcool in P1 and P2
- Scribe in F2 NEW!!!
- snowseraph in P1 and P2
- stygiania in P3 and F2
- supo88 in P2
- Warmheart in P2 and F1
- yajeulb in F1
- DPing with Cats in P1, P2 and F1
- Ex-Pats in F2 NEW!!!
- Foofers' Corner in P2 and P3 NEW!!!
- Infomaniacs in P2 and P3
- P2 Expediters in P3 and F2
- P3 Pros in F2
- Team British Columbia in P1 and P3 NEW!!!
- Team Canada in P3
- Team German in P3
- Team Smoothy (aka 'Smoothies') in P2
- Team UK in P1 and P2
- Team USA in P2
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 November:
- P1 completed over 121,000 pages
- P2 completed over 112,000 pages
- P3 completed over 98,000 pages
- F1 completed over 100,000 pages
- F2 completed over 88,000 pages
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
...oh,... my goodness... do you see what F2 did?... ... ...
Anyway, ALL rounds have met their November targets--some by a considerable margin. Great work, people!!!
I wonder if December will be the same?... It's a bit early to tell which way things are going, though F2 does appear to be getting a very good start, doesn't it?... :lol:
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| December target | 3,410 | 3,410 | 3,100 | 3,410 | 3,100 |
| *December to date | 342 | 444 | 739 | 812 | 1,426 |
| December to date % | 10.03% | 13.02% | 23.84% | 23.81% | 46.00% |
| November target | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,000 | 3,300 | 3,000 |
| November final | 3,357 | 7,338 | 6,287 | 6,497 | 11,173 |
| November final % | 101.72% | 222.36% | 209.57% | 196.88% | 372.43% |
*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 250 Gold Star books posted to PGC or PG-Int (with 9 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 240 Silver Star projects in post processing and 125 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 now have 26 teams; more are always welcome. Drama Team is the newest--it's for lovers of drama.
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....
