Project Managing FAQ
From DPCanadaWiki
The Content Providing FAQ describes the life of a Distributed Proofreaders Canada project up to the point at which the image files and text files have been uploaded to the DPC server.
This Project Manager's Workflow describes everything that happens after that, from the point of view of a Project Manager (PM).
The PM and CP can be the same person. The PM may take over for a CP at any point in the process.
To become a PM, send an email to Simple Simon at Template:Simon-email.
What you need to know first.
A few things will be helpful to know before reading this document.
Be sure you know how DPC works. You should have some time on site before becoming a PM. You should also be very familiar with the proofreading guidelines and the formatting guidelines. These are less important if you just wish to provide scans, but may help you understand this document a little better.
You should look over this thread. Pay special attention to the DP Jargon File.
See also the DPC Workflow Diagram, which gives an overview of how material moves through the site and what the PMs do.
You also might want to look over the Project Gutenberg FAQ. This FAQ is huge, there is no need to read the entire thing, but you should be aware of its presence.
See the Content Providing FAQ for the Content Provider's Workflow &c.
If you feel you need some advice and help for setting up your first PM projects, we're currently trying to establish a Mentoring system for new PMs. Go to the PM Mentoring page to find out about it, or to the PM Mentors page to find somebody who's willing to help out.
Project Manager's Workflow
Create a Project
When you have PM status, the first screen you see when you click the 'PM' link in the navigation bar is the '"DP: Project Managers'" page. If you don't have any projects, then you see a big empty space. Below the menubar (Help • Activity Hub • My Projects, etc) is a series of links. They read:
Show Your Active Projects | Show All of Your Projects | Create Project | Search Your Projects
You don't have any projects, so they don't really do anything. So, the first thing to do is to create a project! Click Create Project.
A new screen with a bunch of blank fields comes up. Image:Createaproject.png
What's supposed to be done here? Well, in order to keep you from having to type in all sorts of details about your project, the Create Project system uses the information you put in here to try to find matches at the Library of Congress. In my experience, less is more. Don't put in too much info -- maybe just the title and author, and don't forget to drop the A and The words at the beginning of the title. When you are ready, press the Search button to start the search.
Shortly, depending on how responsive the LoC is, you'll get a group of possible matches for your project. Each possible match has a Title, Author, Publisher, Language, LCCN, and ISBN field, although they aren't all filled in. Next to each match is a little radio button. Click the one to the left of the closest match to your project. Here's an example:
No match? Don't worry. You can keep trying different searches if you like, or you can create the project from scratch (which is often easier).
For the moment, let's assume that there is a match, and you've selected the proper radio button.
The only information transferrred from the LoC record is title and author. All you need is to be sure the Title and Author match your project.
At the bottom of the list of matches are several buttons:
- Quit takes you back to the main DP: PM window.
- Search Again takes you back one page to the empty fields.
- Create the Project and No Matches take you on to the next page, which is the DP: Create a Project page.
If you were able to find a match (and chose Create the Project), some of the information is filled in for you. If not, and you chose No Matches, you get empty fields. But now you can enter in all of the project information and get your text going!
Enter Project Information
Once you have successfully found a project in the Library of Congress (or had no matches), you come to a new page Create a Project which has these items on the left, and mostly blank fields on the right:
Name of Work Author’s Name Language Genre Difficulty Level Special Day (optional) PPer/PPVer Original Image Source Image Preparer Text Preparer Extra Credits (to be included in list of names) Clearance Information Posted Number Project Comments
Some of these may be filled in for you (from the Library of Congress search), but you can edit all of them.
Name of Work
The first two are pretty obvious. Most PMs try to use a short but descriptive version of the title for Name of Work. Sometimes you can use the whole title, but sometimes it’s just too long! If your project is part of a series, this is a good place to note it, e.g. (Vol 2 of 2).
Some PM's also like to include the copyright year in project titles, as a point of information for proofreaders.
If the work is broken into pieces which will eventually need to be re-joined before the work is posted to PG, enclose the "part" information in square brackets, e.g. [Part 1 of 4] or [1 of 4].
- Merging projects causes a fair amount of work for the squirrels, so this should be kept to a minimum. The general rule is that if the item will be posted to PGC as one whole unit, it should be run through DPC as one whole project, unless there is some compelling reason not to do so, such as for the BEGIN and P3 Qual projects.
Other descriptive information about a project which may be meaningful to the DPC database and/or the DPCers who may choose to work on the project can be enclosed in braces, e.g., {Fraktur}, {LaTeX}, {type-in}.
A useful general guideline when creating project titles is that anything in brackets or braces will definitely NOT be retained as part of the work's title in the PGC Catalog, while anything in parentheses may become part of the work's title at PG.
- Note: Not all PM's follow the above-mentioned guidelines on the use of brackets and braces in project titles. For some background on how certain SA's and squirrels thought the above guidelines would be helpful, see the Project Titles thread.
Author's Name
For the Author’s Name, most people put it in Last name, first name (or initials) order. This is important for the queueing process, as multiple works by the same author shouldn’t be in the same round (with certain exceptions).
Language
Language is really obvious, and the allowable language definitions are on drop-down menus. If your text is half French and half German, you can pick which you want to be first (Primary Language and Secondary Language). If your text is English with only small bits of another language (Latin, for example), you’ll probably just want to specify English and leave the Secondary Language menu alone.
Genre
Genre is another drop-down menu. The items in it correspond to (some of) the Release Queues, but not necessarily in a one-to-one fashion. Its main purpose is to help proofers find works in the listsings of available projects that they feel might appeal to them. Because of this, the genre is displayed in the lists of available projects, and can be used to filter these lists.
Difficulty Level
There is only one Difficulty Level associated with a project. Typically, an Easy project has simple formatting, clear scans and good OCR. See the What's Easy? thread. Novels are the most likely candidates for Easy, especially if they are not illustrated. Average is the most common. A little of this, a little of that. For Proofing, that means maybe longer pages, splotches, and or some longer passages in a second language. For Formatting, there may be sidenotes or more than a few footnotes. Hard projects may have lots of transliterated characters, bad OCR or extensive specialized formatting requirements.
Special Day
Special Day is optional. If you choose anything here your project will be released as follows:
- P1: Projects will be held until that date. It will then be released with some special rules setup just for special day queues.
- P2, P3: Projects are release either on that date or when they reach the top of their language/genre queues--whichever comes first.
For a list of author birthdays, see Authors' Birthdays.
There are several people that need to be credited. Make sure they get credited properly:
PPer/PPVer (DPC User ID)
If you have a PPer set it here. If you do not, leave it blank and the project will be put on a special "No PPer Assigned" list where PPers can look for projects.
Original Image Source
Under Original Image Source pick DPC Internal if it was scanned by someone within DPC, or if it was harvested from another site, pick that site from the list. If your archive site is not on the list you can add new archives to the list of archives by contacting Template:Db-req-email
Image Preparer (DPC User ID)
This is the DPC username of the person who prepped the images, if you choose DPC internal for the Original Image Source
Text Preparer (DPC User ID)
This is the person who ran the OCR on the page images.
Extra Credits (to be included in list of names)
These are other people that should be credited. This would include if someone cleaned up the illustrations, found missing pages, or if the images were prepared by two people (one scanned them, the other cropped them and cleaned them). There's no need to enter your own name here; it will be included automatically as you are the PM. You can change the way you are credited by using the "My Preferences" link at the top of most non-forum pages.
Clearance Information
Clearance Information should be a key that you received when you got clearance for your project. If you do not have the key any more, you can contact Site Admin to look up the project clearance database.
Posted Number
Posted Number should be left blank. It will be filled in later.
Write Project Comments
The Project Comments section of the Project Page is the place where the project manager can put information he or she wants the proofers and formatters to know about the project. This can serve many functions. The most important function is to let proofers and formatters know if there are deviations from the proofing and formatting guidelines.
The Project Comments are one of the most important part of the project creation. Do not rush through them. Look through the book in advance looking for anything that will need special attention. Ask for advice when in doubt if you should say something or not. Have a Project Facilitator or other Experienced PM look over you comments for the first few projects you do if they are complicated at all.
The following sections provide some suggestions on composing project comments:
General comments about Project Comments
Deviations from the guidelines
It's best to keep deviations to a minimum. The greater the number of deviations, the higher the likelihood that proofers and formatters will make errors. Also, some proofers specifically avoid projects with deviations; that may slow your project down. With these in mind, consider carefully whether the project requires any deviations. Can the issue be dealt with easily by global searches and/or regular expressions in Post Processing? If so, it's best not to not to ask for any deviations from the guidelines.
If the project can be proofed and formatted using the standard guidelines, specifically state that in the project comments. Make sure it stands out. This will allow the proofers and formatters to skip over the informational portions of the project comments with confidence that they haven't missed an important instruction.
However, given the great variety in books being processed, some books require deviations from the standards (e.g. a Fortran compiler, a book with 5 levels of headings). In these cases, it's essential to provide some guidance to the proofers and formatters in order to get a consistently proofed and formatted book to the Post Processor. Make sure these stand out, make sure it's obvious that these are deviations (to be used for this project only), and provide examples if necessary. See common exceptions to the guidelines for examples of many exceptions that PMs have requested on past projects.
What to look out for/What to expect
In some cases, it's useful to reinforce the guidelines. Make it clear in your comments that these are reinforcements, not deviations. (e.g. "Proof diacritical marks just as the Guidelines specify; you may be doing that a lot in this book -- the OCR often missed them! So please be sure to include these when proofing.", or "This book contains thought breaks which are indicated by extra space on the page between the paragraphs. Format these as the Guidelines say: insert <tb> for these.") It's best to use these sparingly--perhaps one or two per project. Clearly separate these from any deviations to the guidelines.
Some project managers choose to give the proofers an idea of what to expect in the project (e.g. good OCR, poor OCR, index, tables, simple format, multi-line format, complex mathematical equations, dialect). This may be useful to proofers and formatters when they are choosing a project to work on.
Information about the book
Some proofers and formatters enjoy having some information about the book and/or author when deciding whether to work on a book. Others find this information distracting. If you do include this sort of information, keep it short. Consider linking to Wikipedia and/or to information you've put in the DPC Wiki.
Authors lifespans
Proofers and formatters working in countries with "life+" copyright laws often appreciate having information on author and contributor birth and death dates included.
Offensive material
Take into consideration your future proofers and formatters desires to avoid material that can be offensive. Warn them in advance about things like Offensive Language, Religion Criticisms, Derogative Ethnic subjects, Racisms, Offensive Stereo-typing to name a few. If the title does not make it clear what the content of the book is, give details here.
Every subject has the right to enter PGC, for historic value if nothing else, but not everyone is willing to be part of that preservation.
Format of project comments
Most HTML formatting is supported. You can keep it simple and just enter text, but if you want any formatting (including line breaks or paragraph breaks) you must use HTML.
Project managers may use any format they wish. When choosing a format consider the following:
- Don't make proofers or formatters search through the project comments to find out if there are any deviations from the guidelines. Put this information first and make sure it stands out. Make it easy for proofers and formatters to see what is requested.
- Exercise caution if you specify foreground or background colours. Differences in monitors and colour vision (e.g. colour blindness) can make some combinations very difficult to read.
Updating project comments
If forum discussions indicate that there is need for additional clarity on how to proof or format, be sure to update the project comments with this information. Instructions which are in the project comment are more likely to be read and followed than instructions which are buried somewhere on page 3 of a 5 page discussion.
Clearly identify any changes which occur mid-course. Date these so that returning proofers/formatters will know what has changed.
Comments targeted toward Proofers
Here you need to give very specific requirement on how to handle any situation that is not in the guidelines. It is also a good idea to quote the guidelines for the less common situations that are covered by the guidelines.
Comments targeted toward Formatters
Here you need to give very specific requirement on how to handle any situation that is not in the guidelines. It is also a good idea to quote the guidelines for the less common situations that are covered by the guidelines.
How headers are to be handled
How to handle the more commom headers are covered in the guidelines.
There are times though where there is no clear-cut way to decide if something should be treated as a chapter, sub-chapter or what. Periodicals and Poetry are the most common types of documents that need special instructions on how to handle. Explain in detail how you want it handled and give examples to reinforce what you want.
Comments targeted to PPers
While it is not necessary to give the PPer instruction it is a good idea to place information here that you feel the important to the final production of the project. The standard is now to create a HTML version of all book so that is not needed though PM still add it in.
Details
-- Illustrations: for the benefit of new PPers let them know if there are illustrations to be processed. If there are none, say that also as that is the easiest type of Project to complete.
-- Sidenotes: specify (if and how) you want Sidenotes.
-- Small Caps: specify if you want to keep them.
Upload the Files
Before you upload your project, it is a good idea to check the images. Even if this was done in CP, it is a good idea to double check to make sure they are all there, and are all complete and usable, and that they all have the associated text files. It is much easier to fix a project now than later.
Missing pages are a big hassle to fix later on; do not load any projects to DPC unless they are 100% intact, this means:
- no missing pages
- no bad pages
- all illustrations included
You should also double check the names. The text file and image file for any given page should have the same base name (e.g., 001.txt and 001.png), and illustration files (if any) should have base names that are distinct from those of the page files (so fig001.jpg or 001-illus.jpg are okay, but 001.jpg is not). Please also note that filenames containing the word "ad" are valid, however many proofers have ad-blocking software that will not allow images to be displayed if it contains this word. As such, names like ad001.png should not be used.
The dpscans directory lives in a separate place on the server which runs DPC. In order to associate the text and image files with your new project, you first have to have the files available in dpscans. Most PMs have a subfolder in dpscans with their username (e.g. dpscans/dpuser) in which they put another subfolder with the project (e.g. dpscans/dpuser/myproject1). If you don't have a folder in dpscans, you can create one with your FTP program.
You were given the login and password for using FTP to connect to dpscans when you got the email congratulating you for being a PM. If you lost this information you can go to a project that is in either new or P1 Unavailable status and below the upload field you will see the information.
The rest of these instructions assume you've uploaded your OCR Output(.txt), Page Scans(.png) and Illustrations (usually .jpg or .png) files to a folder in your user folder on dpscans.
After you've created your project, and edited its comments to your satisfaction, when you click on the Save and Go To Project button you'll be brought to the page where you can tell the DPC system where you put the files you want to add to the project.
Following the project comments is a field with your user name already filled in. The system assumes you've put the files somewhere in your user folder on dpscans. In the field, after your user name, type in the name of the folder where the files are, and click on the Add/Replace button.
You will be supplied with a list of the illustrations, then a table with the text and the images. Look over this list to make sure everything is correct. You should have 1 text file per page scan, and vice versa. All pages should be there. And there should be no errors listed. If there are you should fix them before you continue.
Once everything is correct, click "Proceed with Load." Then at the next page, click "return to project page." If your pages are screwed up, you can fix them as long as the project is a "new project" or is in "P1 unavailable". Check "fixing a project" for more information.
OK, how do I finally get my project into the proofing rounds?
The project should show a status of "New Project" in the pull-down status column of the Project Managers page. Use that list to change the status first to "Proofreading Round 1: Unavailable". Once that's done, a new option appears in the pull-down list: "Proofreading Round 1: Waiting for Release". When you change the project to "Waiting for release" the software will automatically determine when it's time to actually enter P1.
Note for first-time PM's: When the queues of waiting projects are long and you're starting out as a new PM, it can seem to take forever to get your project to the proofers. To help with this, you get one "get out of queue-jail free" card per round ... to be used on the project of your choice (may or may not be your first project). Post a note in the DPC Forums or ask a Project Facilitator for help manually "pushing" your project into the round.
A little bit of clean-up, please
You should now remove the files from dpscans, as the text has been copied into the database, and the images have been copied into the project's directory.
Shepherd the project
You need to keep an eye on your project, and make sure it moves along the way you want it to. You should keep an eye on the project discussion and update the project comments with any procedure changes that occur for the project. You should deal with bad pages and answer questions as needed. When the project is posted you should look it over and make sure that it is what you had in mind when you started the project.
Working with your team
Please keep in mind that like you, everyone that works on your project is a volunteer. You can encourage people to work on your projects by always treating them with respect, and by always being helpful and courteous. There are several concrete ways to show proofreaders that you appreciate their work on you project. First, check your Project Discussion often, or set a watch on your project threads in the DPC Forums. (There is an option for this under the "Project managing" tab of the "My Preferences" section in the top row of links.) Answer what questions you can; most can be answered by referring to the Proofing Guidelines or Formatting Guidelines. Sometimes a question will be vague; politely ask for the proofreader to expand upon their question. If you cannot answer the question yourself, you may wish to ask some of the experienced proofreaders, one of the Project Facilitators, or use one of the more specialized forums. Above all, be calm, reasonable, and polite, and remember that a thank you goes a long way. Often another experienced proofreader or a Project Facilitator will get to the question before you, don't depend on someone to do that. You need to verify their answer to make sure it is correct and follows what you want to happen in your project. If you have a PPer assigned and you feel that person could answer a question better let the PPer know so they can go in and answer it. PPer do not always follow a project they have been assigned until it reaches the formatting rounds where their input is needed more.
Always remember you are the final word on how your project will be handled in the rounds. If something is wrong you need to be there to correct it.
Advertise (as needed)
Some projects move slowly and you may wish to speed things up. There are a couple ways to do this, read on.
- Spice up the comments
- Put something interesting in the project comments. You also do not want to overwhelm the comments either. If your comments are too long, people will not read them.
- Ask your friends
- You can beg your friends via PM, in your teams discussion, or on Jabber.
- Special teams
- There are special teams with special focuses that can help you with your project. If your project is a type-in project there are people that love these. If it is in a non-English language, find a thread for that language. If it is slow in a particular queue, post to that queues team. If it is on Quilting, there is a quilting team, if it is Christian there is a Christian team. There are even teams for just parts of a book. For example, maybe the last 25 pages of your book are an index. Often books will slow down at this point, because many proofers find index pages hard and boring -- but not so the Index Team! So let that team know when your book reaches the index pages, and they may jump in to quickly proof those pages for you.
For a list of the teams broken up by catagory visit the Teams List. While anyone creating a team should put their team on this list, not everyone knows about it, so if your team is not on the list, you can add it. Also look here to see all the teams, even if they are not on the list. It is the teams toward the end that will most likely not be on the teams list.
Find a PP
If you plan on Post Processing the project yourself, then you can skip this.
Finding a PP can be easy, if it is a project people want to work on, or hard if it is something weird and obscure. If you are not going to PP it, leave the PPer section blank when you create the project. Your project will then be listed on the no PPer yet list. It is also recommended that you put in the project comments "PPer wanted" until you get a PPer. This is usually enough, but not always. You can leave the project be, then when it finished F2 it will move into the PP pool where someone will eventually get it. Or you can beg others to do it. It is your choice.
Once a PP is assigned, you can take a back seat to the PP, but should still be around as backup. After this point your job is mostly to update project comments, repair bad pages and make sure the project keeps moving. The PP should make any policy desisions.
Once you have a PP, go to the project and edit it to add in the PP's DPC username.
Fixing a project, or it's broke, fix it
Someone reported a bad page, how do I fix it? or I have 1 or a few pages to fix, but not many.
Fixing a page or two is easy. If you really feel like it you can replace the entire project this way, but it would be time-consuming.
In the project page, either use detail level 4, or click on "Images, Pages Proofread, & Differences" to see the list of pages. Find the page you are interested in fixing, then click fix. If the page is marked bad, it will say "bad" instead of "fix". Here you are given 4 options. You can view the text, view the image, modify the text, or modify the image. The text you would modify would be from the previous round, so do not use this once the page has been done for this round.
- If the page was marked bad.
- Once you have repaired the project, as above, click the radio button for "Fixed" and click "Continue" to return the page to available.
- But the page is not really bad.
- Sometimes someone will mark a page as bad, that is not really bad. This should not happen often, as the reporter now has to state why the page is bad, but if it does happen, just click the radio button for "Invalid Report" and click "Continue".
There are duplicate pages, how do I delete them?
If you need to delete a whole page (both image and text) from the project, go to detail level 4 or the project's Page Details and click the "Delete" link for the appropriate page. If you need to replace an image or text instead, use the "Fix" option explained above.
To delete quite a few pages at once, you can click the checkboxes for the pages to be deleted, scroll to the bottom of the page, and in the "For each selected page" drop-down menu select "Delete".
After deleting the duplicates, you can email db-req to have the files renumbered, which will avoid questions later on from proofers or PPers who might wonder about the gap in the numbering.
If you need to delete an illustration that does not have a text file associated with it, email db-req.
It is missing an illustration, how do I add it?
If there are no pages missing from the project, but the high-resolution scan of an illustration (or illustrations) needs to be added, it's pretty easy. Just load the illo scan (or scans) to dpscans, and send Template:Db-req-email an email message saying where the files are and which project they need to be added to. Make sure that they have different names to any existing illo or page files, unless you specifically want to overwrite existing files, in which case you should make that clear in your email.
It is missing a page, how do I add it?
This happens once in a while. You are fixing it now, that is what matters. What you do depends on what round the project is in, so read on.
- Name your files correctly!
- Make sure they are in order. If you are missing pages that goes between 020.png and 021.png then the replacement pages should be named 020a.png, 020b.png, etc. For the technically minded, name the pages in such a way that a lexical sort will put them into the right place in the main project
- My project has not yet left P1.
- You are in luck. As long as your project has not left P1, you can easily fix it. The project needs to be in either "new" or "P1 Unavailable" to do this. If the project is in P1 Waiting or P1 Available, move it to P1 Unavailable.
- Now go into the project and follow the instructions for Uploading the Files. Any files you include in the zip will replace files of the same name, or be added to the project if the names do not match.
- My project has left P1.
- After the project has left P1, you cannot use the bulk repair feature, these take database work, so a System Admin will have to do it. You need to make a new project containing only the missing pages, make the project unavailable, and write to Template:Db-req-email with the project number and title. Those friendly squirrels will then push the project through the rounds until it has reached a state compatible with the main project, and merge the two projects. There are full instructions on the db-req page.
I really messed up and I need to replace a lot of the pages.
If it is a question of replacing pages, rather than adding new ones, just upload the new files to dpscans and send Template:Db-req-email an email saying what you want done. Be sure to include the project name and project id in your email!
My project is missing some pages, how do I find them?
First, return to the source of the scans (the content provider, or your library/collection if you were the content provider) and see if you can get the missing pages yourself. If the scans were harvested, it may be a long wait until the archive can fix the project and get the pages to you. It is helpful to file an error report with them, however it may be faster to go ahead and supplement the pages on your own...
- Your Library. Try your library! If your local library does not have the book on the shelf, they may be able to get it for you through an interlibrary loan service.
- Missing Pages Wiki. Post a request here with the edition information about the book and the pages/scans that you need, and other volunteers will also check their local libraries.
- Missing Page Finders. You can search through these volunteers' library catalogues (or use Worldcat to get a list of libraries that have the book, and then cross-reference with this list), and then contact those that may have access about getting the missing material scanned.
Sometimes it takes a while to get missing page requests filled, but as new Missing Page Finders join the effort and add their libraries, the odds of your project getting fixed increase!
Once you've found the missing pages, please follow the instructions on the db-req page to get them added to the project.
The project is in PP and the PPer noticed something missing. Can I just give the PP the page?
NO Please follow the instructions on the db-req page and get the files added to the project. The archives are going to be used to create an archive of the page scans. Missing pages will affect the quality of this archive.
FAQ, or what do I need to know?
What is the difference between a CP and a PM? And what do those other abbreviations mean?
A: The CP or Content Provider supplies the scans to be processed at DPC, and may also prepare the files for the proofreaders, but does not necessarily deal with the project beyond that. CPs do not have to be members of DPC.
The PM or Project Manager is responsible for creating the project at DPC, guiding it through the rounds, answering proofreader/formatter questions, and making decisions that will help create the most consistent output possible for the post-processor. PMs may provide their own content or acquire scans from another CP.
See Jargon related to Project Management for other abbreviations you should know.
How much of my time will PMing take?
A: It depends on how many projects you have going through and how complicated they are. Some projects require you to make lots of decisions regarding formatting, and so getting complete project comments established and providing examples can take some time. On the other hand, if you have a project that adheres completely to the current proofreading and formatting guidelines, it may flow all the way through the rounds without a single question.
You'll need to keep an eye on the discussion threads of your projects as they go through the rounds, as ultimately it is up to you to ensure the most consistent output possible for the post-processor. The post-processor (as well as project facilitators, and other DPCers) may help answer questions for you, too, though it's important that you take an active role in helping your projects progress.
You should also take time to spot check a few of the changes the proofers make to a page, especially proofers with low page counts in the P1 and F1 rounds. Looking at their Diffs does this. If you see a major error send the proofer a polite PM with what they are doing wrong and how the problem should have been handled. If you do not feel up to doing this yourself, consult a person that does Mentoring or a Project Facilitator. If the proofer has many pages of bad correction you may want to consider if you should clear their changes and have the pages re-proofed, though this should only be done as a last resort for major problems. The best solution if you can is to have the proofer go back and correct the problems. If the project has left the round or you need to rush the project to the next round, then make a comment in the Project Comments for the proofers in the next round to watch for those pages and make corrections. No proofer wants to be surprised by a totally messed up page.
(If you do not have time for this, please consider being a Content Provider, and allowing someone else to Manage your projects.)
One way to help yourself monitor the discussion thread is to receive automatic forum notifications when someone adds to the thread. Your forum profile must have your correct e-mail address and be set up to notify you when posts are made to your topics. Create the thread before your project enters the rounds by clicking on the "Start a discussion..." link on the project page. The forum profile also allows you to forward private messages to your e-mail, in case someone asks a question that way instead of using the public project discussion.
What are the qualifications necessary to become a PM?
A: While there are no specific requirements to become a PM, it is highly recommended that you have some time on site. Simple Simon processes the PM requests on an individual basis, and he should be contacted at Template:Simon-email with requests.
What kind of equipment do I need to PM?
A: If you are not also the CP, there is no special equipment needed to PM. Although having a copy of GuiPrep installed, and OCR package and some image tools is very helpful.
Are there deadlines? Who sets the schedule? What if the schedule is not met?
A: The only deadlines and schedules are set by the PM. If as the PM you do not want to set a deadline or schedule, then don't. If you do set a deadline and it is passed, then the only one who is going to come down on you, is you. Some projects take very little time, others take a long time.
What files do I need to upload?
A: The CP will provide the files that you upload. You should double check these files, making sure they are complete and in good order.
For more information see the complete Content Provider instructions.
My special day is not on the special day list, can I get it added?
A: Possibly. It depends on how many books will be added for that special day and if it will happen only one year, or if people will use it every year. If it is only a small number of books, or people will only use it the one year, then use the "Otherday" option. If there are several books and it will likely be done again the next year, then send a message to Template:Db-req-email and a Site Administrator will consider your request.
I have harvested a project from an archive that is not on the list, can I get it added?
A: Yes. Send a request to ism at pgdpcanada dot net (Image Sources Manager) to get it added.
What does the AutoModify button on the project page do?
A: This will manually run the clean-up script on a particular project that is normally run at the end of each round. Any pages out for more than four hours will be reclaimed back to available. Avoid using the button too much, some people check-out pages to be done off-line and count on having more than 4 hours to proof them if the project is not close to being finished. Mainly, it should be used if you are waiting to send a project on to the next round and you know the four hours is up on all the incomplete pages or you want someone to get started on the ones that can be reclaimed.
