May 23, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #12--May 23, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Newsletter Logo
There were 3 entries for newsletter logo. The winning entry was submitted by Renaldc and you can see it on the main DPC Newsletter page ( http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/DPC_Newsletter ). Thank you, Rénald, for your wonderful picture.
Editorial
Revisions to the Beginning Proofreader's FAQs--Simple Simon would appreciate comments from experienced proofers and mentors.
Milestones--We've started a new stats article; you'll find it below with the other stats articles. When ever someone reaches a milestone in the number of pages they've done, it will be reported here. There are several names this time: we need to catch up with our reporting.
ÜberProjects--We plan to start another ÜberProject soon--watch the wiki page and forum for an announcement.
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--If you've been following the forum thread (see below for the link), you will have noticed that there is a difference in opinion as to whether or not any proofing-related should be included with the Formatting Guidelines.... Simple Simon still would like your comments on items that you feel either should be or should not be included in the revised Formatting Guidelines.
New article: Book Preview--So, what did you think about Simple Simon's "Book Preview" article in the last issue? Would you be interested in more? Would you be interested in providing such an article?
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.
Simon Says...
DPC gains a few new members each week. My observations are that most of these take a few days to “look around” and figure out what we do here, then try proofing a few pages.
Some of them experiment with a BEGIN project, get some feedback, then move on to a Newcomers Only project, graduate to regular projects, and eventually get involved with our Forums and Wiki.
The third stage is to try PMing a project, do some Content Provision, and finally to PP a project. This is the normal development progression--at some stage , the new member satisfies our criteria, and achieves P2 and F1 status. And a proportion eventually get P3 and F2.
BUT--almost 40% of those who join us never proceed past P1, and only do a small number of pages before slowly drifting away--they never become an advanced DPC member, and we lose the benefits of their potential enthusiasm, energy and special interests.
So, how can we prevent this from happening? We have created BEGIN projects and NO projects, under rfrank’s able coordination. I have now added a special section to the Beginning Proofreader’s FAQ, that helps those new members who are “eager to get going” jump into proofing pages very quickly.
What else can we do to support new members, encourage the development of enthusiasm, and sustain them through the occasional “dark days”--you know, when nothing seems to go right? I have just started a new thread in the “How do I ...? Common Site Q&A” Forum, so you can contribute your ideas and suggestions. The link is http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=4901#4901 and it's called "...Get started around here?".
Please help--I feel so disappointed when I see a new member come on board, do a few pages quite well, then “fade away”, presumably because they never quite felt at home. Remember, just because this is “distributed proofreading” and we all work separately in our own homes and offices, there’s no reason why we cannot reach out and “touch” a new member, or provide a tool, idea or concept that will help another member be more effective and enjoy themselves more.
Last weekend, I attended a convention (a games convention, lots of competition and testosterone). During a break, I explained to about 50 attendees what we do at DPC, and demonstrated our web site, software and achievements. They were BLOWN AWAY that we could do these things in just a few months.
Which brings to mind two of those “Quotable Quotes” I’m so fond of
“When land was the scarcest resource, nations battled over it…the same thing is happening now for talented people.”--Stan Davis, Future Wealth
“Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic.”--Arthur C. Clarke
So let’s not forget, we have an impressively large number of extremely talented members around DPC--celebrate them and their achievements. AND, while we know that what we do is the fruit of hard work, others who see what we achieve really do believe we do magic--let’s take advantage of this to attract more new members, and support of all kinds, including favourable publicity.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Next up is the Beginning Proofreader's FAQ. We would ask experienced proofers and mentors to examine these, not only for accuracy, but also in the light of a "roadmap" for a completely new member of DPC. The wiki page is here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Beginning_Proofreaders%27_FAQ
After that will be the Formatting Guidelines. Could everyone think about ideas they'd like to see included, or changes to the existing DP-INT Guidelines that should be made to match our procedures, and send them to the Documentation Forum--Simple Simon has started a thread ( http://pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=479 ), please pass your comments and suggestions. And don't forget about those things that annoy you--those are very important, too. After all, they can't be revised if we don't know that they are annoying....
Of course, we'll keep working our way through all of the FAQs and Guidelines--does anyone have any suggestions for other areas/activities that should have Guidelines or FAQs prepared?
We've already lined up some of our members to translate the various Guidelines documents into other languages, which will also be available from the Wiki page.
And the final step will come when we upgrade to synchronize our site code with that of DP-INT or at least as close as we can since DPC is a UTF-8 site where DP-INT works in iso-8859-1. At that point, we'll be able to add more complete services in other languages, and effectively translate much of the site.
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 prepped 9 volumes, so there's lots to do.
- Volume 3: The Founder of New France, A Chronicle of Champlain is in P2: Available. Volume 18: The Adventurers of England on Hudson Bay, A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North, is in the P1 queue. Volume 27 is being prepped for proofing.
- There are two volumes (5 & 20) in the PP pool waiting for someone to pick them up. 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.
- 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.
- Two volumes have been posted to PGC: Volume 20: Adventurers of the Far North, A Chronicle of the Arctic Seas and Volume 29: The Day of Sir John MacDonald, A Chronicle of the Early Years of the Dominion.
ÜberProject #2: Jesuit Relations
We've started our test volume (Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702); it's currently in P2. 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 also sees no reason that we should not go ahead with additional volumes--this first volume has bee reasonably well received and does not appear to move any slower than other "specialty" material.
There were some very interesting posts in the discussion forum mostly about how to proof the various non-standard characters. 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....
Three Came to Ville Marie by Alan Sullivan and which won the GG Award for fiction in 1941 was posted to PGC on May 4, 2008. The HTML version is here: http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/sullivan-three/sullivan-three-00-h-dir/sullivan-three-00-h.html
ÜberProject #4: Periodicals
Graham's Magazine has been confirmed as the first part of our ongoing ÜberProject #4: Periodicals. Simple Simon has the entire first year of volumes in hand and will release them as demand calls for them. There are 3 volumes currently undergoing proofing and/or formatting: one each in rounds P1, P3 and F2. The 4th volume is now waiting in the wings....
However (there's always a "however" isn't there?), this isn't the only periodical 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
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 385 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 | |
|---|---|
| May 2008 | 15 |
| April 2008 | 27 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 237 |
| Total to date | 385 |
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.
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- rolands in P3
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- hugger1935 in F2
- uwe-joachim in F2 (and he's closing on 10,000)
- yajeulb in F1
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
We're almost three-quarters the way through May and P3 continues with a very wide lead over the other rounds. The rest of you had better get those fingers working if you want to exceed your monthly goals.... You have 8 days to do so.
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| May goal | 3,300 | 3,300 | 2,500 | 3,300 | 2,500 |
| *May to date | 3,590 | 3,043 | 4,790 | 2,790 | 1,633 |
| May % | 115.81 % | 98.16 % | 206.02 % | 90.00 % | 70.24 % |
*Numbers accurate to "press" time.
For more statistics and related links go to: Statistics Central.
Books In Process And/or Posted To PGC
At press time, we had 50 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 5 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 55 Silver Star projects in post processing and 76 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 have 16 teams; but 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....
