Jon Noring wrote:
Now, to show support for Michael's reasoning, PG definitely needs to make a strong point about the importance of using easy to repurpose open standards for formatting etexts. But mixing obsolete proprietary formats with usable formats actually works against making this point, as Joshua notes. It also aggravates users who may want to read the work, but can't (and thus they will develop a negative view towards PG.)
I say move them to a special directory so they are *easier* to find, and then create a web site describing why proprietary formats are bad (especially those which are very difficult to repurpose even when the format is published.) Provide links at this web site to those works in the collection using proprietary formats. I guess one could call it a "PG Hall of Shame" collection. <smile/>
I do support this suggestion. The reasoning behind my support is: Were I a random reader searching Project Gutenberg for a copy of Edward Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" I would be met by a series of files available for download. I find several textual files for each volume of the history, and one Folio formatted document (which does, for the record, appear first, perhaps because 'Folio' is alphabetically prior to 'Volume'). I choose the first item on the list, and perhaps, if it has been somehow moved from the top of the list, I select that which does not specify a volume number, intending to locate the full set of volumes. I then see the following comment which appears in the notes for this Folio-formatted document: DO NOT DOWNLOAD !!! see #892 for HTML format, #733 for plain text. The Folio format is obsolete. You won't be able to display the file. Thank goodness that this comment is here, but I suggest that this does not have the affect that we intend, and that Michael very strongly supports. As a random reader, I do not look at this and say "What a tragic result of proprietary e-book formats!" Rather, the only thought that I can imagine is one of confusion. "What a foolish thing for Project Gutenberg to have!" not, "What a foolish thing for anybody to do!" I do support Jon's suggestion of creating a Project Gutenberg "Hall of Shame" of sorts, which provides the argument against proprietary e-book formats. I suggest that the Folio-formatted e-books could be moved into this portion of the site. Of course, as Michael has pointed out, the intention is not to hide the documents away. With that intention in mind, it would not be unreasonable to leave the original entry within the database, but replace the above note "DO NOT DOWNLOAD, etc" with a more detailed reference to the aforementioned "Hall of Shame." This provides Joe Reader with more of a justification for the document's presence, and possibly sends him away with a different perspective on proprietary e-book formats, which, after all, is the intention. - Scott Schmucker