September 12, 2008
From DPCanadaWiki
Issue #20--September 12, 2008
(Full listing of previous issues is available at DPC Newsletters)
Summer "Vacation"--What did you do?...
I've set up a thread under the Everything Else forum: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6067 be sure to make your comments. It can be short and simple: sunbathed, read some books; or very long winded if you want to give us a travelogue of those gorgeous venues you visited.... I know what Simple Simon was doing for part of the summer--"talking" with ISPs, both old and new.... :wink:
Editorial
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.... See Simple Simon's update below.
You may have noticed that some of the really "old" glitches and errors have been cleared up: e.g., we don’t need to log-in twice…. There is a thread to report any "bugs" that you might find: http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=611 The thread also has comments about what has been fixed and what hasn't.
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 further update on The Young Folks periodiocal under ÜberProjects #4.
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines--Simple Simon been a bit busy the last couple of weeks as if we didn't know. :wink: But he hasn't forgotten the revisions--he'll get back to them as soon as the site and server glitches are handled.
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 know, we continue to experience problems getting the 3 remaining bugs in the site code resolved. One of these effectively prevents us from starting new projects, because, when a project is "created" and the ProjectID is assigned, the code does not create the "project table"--thus no images can be added to the project folder; likewise images cannot now be updated or changed.
But this will be resolved soon, and thus arises the following question--how are we going to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of DPC's creation on December 1? I would like to mark the occasion by completing 100 projects within the year--coachmike and I originally aimed to do about 6 projects per month during the first year, and obviously we'll make that target--despite the posted book count on the website pages, we have already posted 70+ books to PGC.
When the code is fixed, and the "flood-gates open" we'll obviously add a large number of new projects; many are already cleared and planned, and the CPers are standing by, myself included. I want to add some new books from my planned "Scottish Enlightenment" series, there are a bunch of Grahams magazine issues to start, and a new entry arises.
I have tracked down the early issues of Scientific American, from 1846 to 1869--none of these have been done before, and I've already tested the waters by doing one issue on a "solo" basis. I'm not sure whether PGC is interested, but it certainly qualifies to be posted to PG-INT, so maybe we'll start going that route with some pre-1923 material. Some of this SciAm material is really quaint, the scans are good so the OCR comes out very clearly, and I've already laid down the PPing formats in doing the solo issue. I also have help from claybits, who is the DP-INT member who currently spearheads their SciAm program, and is willing to do final checks on our material, then DU it to PG-INT.
In any case, I'd like ideas for which books, perhaps among those already in the workflow, that we are going to "push through" in time for December 1. Let's make a concerted effort, proofing, formatting and PPing, to ensure that 30 more books are complete by that time. If we cooperate to complete book/rounds, clean up odd pages, and manually move books between rounds, I'm sure we can make this target.
Which books or books should we nominate for our "100th" book? [Editor: I have set up a forum thread under DP Canada Culture & History ( http://www.pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6241#6241 ) for you to post your suggestions for books to push through to completion during the next 2½ months.]
Revisions to Guidelines, FAQs and the DPC site code
Revisions to the Formatting Guidelines. Simple Simon started a thread ( http://pgdpcanada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=479 ) for comments. He promises to get on with the revisions very, very soon--once all the other more important crises are dealt with.
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 begun a para by para French translation. Naturally, it is slow; but it's being done. 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 18: The Adventurers of England on Hudson Bay, A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North, is in the F1: Available. Volume 1: The Dawn of Canadian History is in P2: Available. Volume 27 is listed as a New Project. Volume 3 is in Post-Processing. Volume 2 has completed PPV and WW and is on its way for posting at PGC.
- 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. There is currently some discussion on Index formatting. Once that is decided upon, it will be added to 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. For those that are interested, the books are in either the P2 or P3 waiting queues
- Three volumes have been posted to PGC: 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 volumes currently undergoing proofing and/or formatting: one in P3 and two in F2. One volume has made it to PPing. The 5th volume is now waiting in the wings at the P1: Waiting stage.... Simon also needs some volunteers for PPing these periodicals--if you are interested, send him a PM.
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: I have added about 20 pages to a "test" project which is sitting in New Projects--please have a peak ( http://www.pgdpcanada.net/c/project.php?id=projectID486eed9a125e2&detail_level=3 ). These pages are to "wet your appetite"; tell me what you think....
Since we've been having site problems and everyone involved is busy with that, there is nothing new to report.
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 434 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 | |
|---|---|
| September 2008 | 7 |
| August 2008 | 11 |
| July 2008 | 8 |
| Q2 2008 | 63 |
| Q1 2008 | 106 |
| 2007 total | 237 |
| Total to date | 434 |
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 New!!
- 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 New!!
- De2164 in F1
- yajeulb in F1
- hugger1935 in F2
- Team Canada in P2 and 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.
August is done and P1 finished first again, though P2 was certainly "breathing down their necks"….
September could be another close month and were almost at the half-way point. P1 is in the lead, though P2 is right behind them with P3 and F2 following very closely. Two and a half weeks to go--well, anything is possible….
| Round | P1 | P2 | P3 | F1 | F2 |
| August goal | 3,100 | 3,100 | 2,325 | 3,100 | 2,325 |
| *August final | 3,478 | 3,466 | 1,410 | 1,459 | 1,721 |
| August final % | 112.19 % | 111.81 % | 60.64 % | 47.06 % | 74.06 % |
| September goal | 3,000 | 3,000 | 2,250 | 3,000 | 2,250 |
| *September to date | 2,007 | 1,949 | 1,394 | 719 | 1,318 |
| September to date % | 66.90 % | 64.97 % | 61.96 % | 23.97 % | 58.58 % |
*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 73 Gold Star books posted to PGC (with 4 in PPV). Fantastic work, all.
There are currently 75 Silver Star projects in post processing and 101 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 17 teams; but more are always welcome. There are plans for a "Foofers' Corner"--for discussions between F1 and F2 formatters. It will be set up as soon as the site code gets fixed.
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....
