October 10, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #22--October 10, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Mass Email Sendouts....
There has been discussion in a couple of forum threads about whether or not DPC should send out mass (i.e., bulk) emails. There are DPC members who would like to be advised if there are going to be server outages or even to be notified when our newsletter is issued. There are also DPC members who do not want to receive such emails for any reason since they consider any such emails as spam. Both points of view are valid.
There is currently a site poll regarding such mass emails ( http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=665 ). Everyone is entitled to their own view and to vote in the poll. We would like to know how you feel. There is no obligation to vote or to have a say; but, if you want to, the forum is there for you to make your comments.
Editorial
100th book for DPC's First Anniversary--As mentioned in a previous issue, we are coming up on DPC's first anniversary: December 1. We do have sufficient books in process to have 100 books posted to PGC by December 1. The question is: what book do we want to be posted as number 100? See the thread here: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=657 for further discussion and to add your suggestions.
Server and site problems--Simple Simon, coachmike and company have continued to work hard the last number of weeks. Things are improving, slowly but surely.... I do note that the counter for projects posted to PG Canada appears to be working again--though everything has been counted in to October. But they are being updated and that's what is important.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that we'll have more fixes very soon. See the "Simon Says..." article for more updates.
Also as part of the ongoing process to make the forums more "user" friendly, our Forum Moderator, IonaV, has created a forum specifically for problems that you might find on the site--whether in the forums, proofing or formatting interfaces, wiki pages, etc. She is in the process of moving threads to more appropriate forums.
ÜberProjects--see the updates on The Young Folks periodical under ÜberProject #4.
Update revisions for Proofing Guidelines--Simple Simon is looking to do some revisions to the Proofing Guidelines with a revision coming out potentially in either October or November. There has been discussions about further changes to how ellipses will be handled--are we surprised?...
Any other comments anyone? You can post any comments or suggestions in the Suggestions for Proofreading Guidelines Revisions thread under the "Documentation Suggestions" forum.
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--Simple Simon has been working on these and making sure they fit together with the Version 2.0 Formatting Guidelines from DP-INT. Although we'll continue to switch to the Wiki format, he sees no reason why our formatting guidelines should be very different from theirs, except for obvious site differences, like UTF-8.
Comments regarding bad links to FAQs and Guidelines--coachmike is still at work on this; though some other things have slowed down the process, it will get done. We just have to be patient. Considering all the other things that have ended up on his plate in recent weeks...some things must wait. Once the server glitches have been solved, he should be able to do some more work on these.
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 anonymouslyAnd you can do so anonymously if you choose. It doesn't have to be long: a sentence or two, a short paragraph or two, 500 words or more if you really like to "talk"; send a PM to Quill.
Simon Says...
As you all know, we have been having continuing problems with our site code ever since we switched to our new server. The "slow server" problem went away, but we got a new batch. The main items are:
- couldn't start new projects--because the database wouldn't create project tables to load the scans and text pages into
- couldn't archive completed projects--so I didn't mark any projects as "Posted to PGC" for weeks!
- several minor but annoying problems with the forums
- some of the "chron-jobs" didn't run, so site stats didn't get updated (and several other, less obvious matters)
We have made progress, and coachmike continues to work on these, now expecting to eliminate them all eventually.
New projects can now be started--the project table gets created, and will now accept both text files and image scans. The only remaining issue is that the Project Forum does not get created automatically. I have developed a "work-around", creating a forum for each new project manually, and linking it to and from the Project Page. If the PM accepts this approach, and creates the new project, I can do the rest. I've tried it with several of my projects and it works fine. You just have to make sure the proofers understand where the link to the project forum is--usually at the top of the Project Comments section. Also, when the project goes into PP, the forum needs to be moved manually--and again when it gets archived.
Completed projects can now be archived--so I've begun marking completed projects as "Posted to PGC". This updates the "titles preserved for the world" tag line (but is has been "off" by 1 book from a very early date). Unfortunately, quite a number of the counters, including the ones that capture the page quotas and totals by round, are not working (a chron-job problem). coachmike tells me he will be working on these this week.
The forum problems--are minor and cosmetic. That is, all the functions of the forums work--some of the buttons are "missing", but their text equivalents are there, so we can operate. I am looking into building an entirely new Forum "template" that would solve all of these problems.
Chron-jobs--these are rather subtle. They are a series of routines that run in the background, at specific times of the day/week/month, to do some of the cleanup work around the site, and update a large number of parts of the underlying database. As I said before, coachmike is working with some of the DP-INT Squirrels to clean these up.
Synchronizing our site code with DP-INT--our long-term goal. Unfortunately, it's like trying to match up with a constantly moving target, since they adjust their code almost weekly. And, we have now learned that they plan to make a number of significant changes within 6 months, that will move them in the direction we want to go--adopting UTF-8, for example. The basic problems are:
- DP-INT code was developed gradually, over a period of time, by different individuals, using differing programming styles and tools. It's very difficult to figure out their code, and how they built it.
- their server architecture is different from ours, and they use an approach to site hosting, called "co-location", which means they own their own hardware, provide all their own software, and the hosting company just provides power, space and the Internet pipeline.
We're coming to the conclusion that we should continue to "patch" what we've got for another 8 months, till our current hosting arrangement elapses, then go to an identical arrangement. We'd purchase co-location services (easy), and buy/configure a server as exactly like DP-INT's as possible (not trivial). Then we'd run the exact same software they do--the only difference would be some software configuration "switches" or choices we'd make to accomodate the unique features of DPC. By that time, it appears they may well have moved in a direction closer to where we want to be.
This would make code maintenance very simple. We could even use the same FAQs and Guidelines they do (adjusted as necessary for our differing copyright situation, and a few other points). To do this, we might have to abandon our Wiki-based approach to guidelines.
More on this last "convergence" idea later.
Your ideas and comments are always welcome.
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines.--As noted above, Simple Simon has started on these and hopes to have a draft ready soon.
He has also reiterated his promise that he will put together a combined Proofing/Foofing wiki page for those Formatters who like to have only one document open at a time but also want to be able to check on certain Proofing Guidelines.
Of course, we'll keep working our way through all of the FAQs and Guidelines, one by one--does anyone have any suggestions for other areas/activities that should have Guidelines or FAQs prepared?
Guidelines translations--Simple Simon has found a translator for the French version of our Proofing Guidelines which, since we plan to be a bilingual site, is the most important. Our fearless volunteer, punicafides, has been working on a para by para French translation. Hopefully, he'll have something soon. Naturally, the translation is slow; but he wants it done properly, I'm sure. MERCI BEAUCOUP, THANK YOU.
Translators for other languages are still needed, so...send a PM to Simple Simon if you would like to help. All that's necessary is the translation--we can put them into wiki page format.
Simple Simon noted in an earlier Simon Says... article that there are lots of things to get properly converted/coded before we upgrade and 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. We must thank coachmike for all his hard work and try not to get too frustrated with the waiting....
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 a number of volumes and there are also several others that need prepping, so there's lots to do. CPers, PMs, PPers are all needed.
- Volume 27 is listed as a New Project. Volumes 1, 3 and 18 are in Post-Processing. I know that there are a couple more being prepped; we just need to get the bugs fixed so that they can be uploaded.
- 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 in the P3 waiting queue.
- Four volumes have been posted to PGC: 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 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
Vol. 65: Lower Canada, Mississippi Valley, 1696-1702, our first, is currently in P3: 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 P1: Available. It is just like Vol. 65: strange characters, old style French spellings and accents, bits and pieces of other languages--lots of fun.
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 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 issues currently undergoing proofing and/or formatting: one each in rounds P1, F1 and F2. There is an issue in under going post-processing and one issue: Graham's Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 2 (1848) has been posted to PGC.
In the starting block...--(that is, being prepped...) 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.
Comments from Warmheart: Finally ... the death dates for contributors for the first 3 issues have been found and I've sent them off to Simple Simon for verification. So very soon I hope to be able to upload the first issue and get it into the P1: Waiting queue.
Warmheart's wikipage for the Periodical can be found through this link: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/wiki/index.php/Our_Young_Folks.
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
We Grow Every Day
We are now up to 444 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 | |
|---|---|
| October 2008 | 3 |
| Q3 2008 | 33 |
| Q2 2008 | 63 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 239 |
| Total to date | 444 |
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 of each team. So that's why, for the "10,000 pages" totals Team German has the most F2 pages and for the "15,000 pages" totals Team USA has the most P3 pages. Another reason to join a team or two....
Completed 15,000 pages in a round:
- uwe-joachim in F2
- rolands in P3
- Team USA in P3
Completed 10,000 pages in a round:
- Team Canada in P1
- Team German in F2
Completed 5,000 pages in a round:
- Daniel G in P1
- De2164 in F1
- Warmheart in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F2
- Team Canada in P2 and F1
- DPing with Cats in F1
Great work, people!!!
Proofing & Formatting Stats
Please note, some of these numbers might be out somewhat due to the glitches from the changeover; however, once the glitches are fixed, I hope that I can get you more accurate numbers.
September ended with great results--all rounds made their page goals. F2 was over 200%!!! Great work, people!!!
However, I can't give you exact end of the month figures as the chronjobs counter isn't working properly at the moment. And that's the same reason I can't give you any numbers for October--yet.... :wink:
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| September goal | 3,000 | 3,000 | 2,250 | 3,000 | 2,250 |
| *September to date | 3,700 | 3,280 | 3,097 | 3,120 | 3,704 |
| September to date % | 123.33 % | 109.33 % | 137.64 % | 104.00 % | 164.62 % |
| October goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| *October to date | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| October to date % | ? % | ? % | ? % | ? % | ? % |
*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 78 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 12 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 93 Silver Star projects in post processing and 92 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 18 teams; but more are always welcome.
The current teams are (in alpha order):
- Aussies
- DPing with Cats
- Foofers' Corner
- Illustrators
- Infomaniacs
- Lusofonia: Portuguese language
- Mommies
- P2 Expediters
- Spanish
- Team British Columbia
- Team Canada
- Team français
- Team German
- Team Hungary
- Team Philippines
- Team UK
- Team USA
- Weather Reports
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....
