You know, about 2 weeks ago, I tried to find out how to join your project and start entering a number of older books that I have in my possession. I tried finding instructions on how to do this on the web page, but found only muddy descriptions of how to go about it. There were no firm guidelines such as USE THIS FORMAT or HERE IS THE PROGRAM THAT WE TYPCIALLY USE. I tried to send scans to obtain copyright clearance only to have the message bounce. I tried resending them with the _at_ changed to @ and never got a reply from whomever was handling the clearances. So, since joining as a PROOFREADER was all that I could find info on, I joined this list. I submitted a couple of elementary questions such as what format to type these books into, etc. My message has NEVER appeared on this digest. All that HAS appeared is a bunch of people bickering and complaining about some arrogant twit. Can we all just GET OFF OF IT and do something constructive? How about someone clueing me in as to a very basic HOW do I reach this person who clears the books for copyright? And should the output of my text files be a TXT file? Or something else? (Then of course there are questions such as how you typically handle/format tables of contents and page breaks, how illustrations are typically treated, etc.) I know that one person is not THAT important, so I won't threaten to leave if I'm not answered, but you'd surely think that you all would welcome something else to do than to gripe about this Bowerbird person... As for me... I'm getting tired of waiting and being ignored.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 07:19 PM 10/3/2005, you wrote:
You know, about 2 weeks ago, I tried to find out how to join your project and start entering a number of older books that I have in my possession.
There is no PG membership. We just have a bunch of volunteers who contribute what they want.
I tried finding instructions on how to do this on the web page, but found only muddy descriptions of how to go about it. There were no firm guidelines such as USE THIS FORMAT or HERE IS THE PROGRAM THAT WE TYPCIALLY USE.
It depends on how you would like to do it. You can either scan all of the books (after you get copyright clearance), and either proof them your self, or you can send the scans to Distributed Proofreaders. You might also type them if you're especially patient. The reason that there is no definitive instructions on what programs to use or exactly how to do things is because everyone does it differently. As long as the end result complies to the general PG formatting and quality standards, it doesn't matter as much how you get there.
I tried to send scans to obtain copyright clearance only to have the message bounce. I tried resending them with the _at_ changed to @ and never got a reply from whomever was handling the clearances.
You can submit the scans here: http://copy.pglaf.org/
So, since joining as a PROOFREADER was all that I could find info on, I joined this list. I submitted a couple of elementary questions such as what format to type these books into, etc. My message has NEVER appeared on this digest.
You might check the archives. I saw your original message as well as a few replies. That particular digest may not have made it to your inbox for some reason.
All that HAS appeared is a bunch of people bickering and complaining about some arrogant twit. Can we all just GET OFF OF IT and do something constructive? How about someone clueing me in as to a very basic HOW do I reach this person who clears the books for copyright? And should the output of my text files be a TXT file? Or something else?
Yes. We want TXT. You can check the FAQ for further details. http://www.gutenberg.org/faq If anything in the FAQ raises more questions, please don't hesitate to ask on the list. You will almost always get a response.
(Then of course there are questions such as how you typically handle/format tables of contents and page breaks, how illustrations are typically treated, etc.) I know that one person is not THAT important, so I won't threaten to leave if I'm not answered, but you'd surely think that you all would welcome something else to do than to gripe about this Bowerbird person... As for me... I'm getting tired of waiting and being ignored.
There are some formatting guides on the DP site. http://www.pgdp.net/ Sorry that you haven't gotten your questions answered. I appreciate your willingness to help, and I know that I am not alone. Good luck, and please don't hesitate to ask more questions. Sincerely Aaron Cannon - -- E-mail: cannona@fireantproductions.com Skype: cannona MSN Messenger: cannona@hotmail.com (Do not send E-mail to the hotmail address.) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (MingW32) - GPGrelay v0.959 Comment: Key available from all major key servers. iD8DBQFDQdBFI7J99hVZuJcRAoWIAJ44Wuo9ZBcLas/jSEvoKbm4XewlqACgoV/L QrsF6TyoYGNf+vbYMzCpzqs= =ZQXe -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Alas, there are few firm guidelines for submission to PG, but most of them can be found in the FAQ (http://www.gutenberg.org/faq/). To submit scans for clearance, I suggest you go to http://copy.pglaf.org. The person who does most of the clearances (i.e., pre-1923 copyrights) was out of town recently, I believe returning on 10/3, so it's possible that your lack of replies about the clearance is merely a timing issue. PG is a volunteer organization, and most of the work is done by a small group of people who are not necessarily subscribed to this mailing list, and if they're not available, it can be a week or two before you get a response. You might also want to consider visiting and/or joining Distributed Proofreaders (http://www.pgdp.net) to see how they do it, as they provide a majority of the content for Project Gutenberg these days. They also have a number of tools available that can be used in the creation of files suitable for upload to PG, although some are geared towards the DP way of splitting the pages into separate files for processing, and then joining them all back together before submission to PG. DP also has forums for people who are working on scanning (content providing), and post-processing (prepping for submission to PG), so even if you don't want to get involved with DP, you may find answers to your questions there. Good luck. I hope this mailing list has not turned you away from volunteering content for Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, the mailing list goes through periods of severe trolling because some people can't resist responding to the trolls (and I think we all know which 8-10 regulars are the ones most guilty), and you joined it a particularly bad time. Bruce
I'll respond to your concerns here, although I may just be repeating what others have said. First, the web site. In responce to people who wanted to find out about various details about Project Gutenberg, Jim Tinsely put together a sizable faq which you can find here: http://www.gutenberg.org/faq/ It goes into much detail about many aspects of volunteering for PG, among other things. It could be a little overwhelming because of the amount of information it contains, but such is the trade-off. If you are looking at preparing a text yourself, any word processor or text editor that can output standard plain text ought to be suitable. I could tell you what I use, and others on this list could do the same, but they would likely all be different. Next you mentioned copyright clearances. Are you using the interface found at: http://copy.pglaf.org/ Or are you emailing the images directly to someone? I think every person who is interested in PG is important. As you may have seen on this list, even those who may not have the good-will of many others still have their say. I, as well as others, responded to your previous message on this mailing list. If there were other messages you sent, are you able to check them to make sure the address was correct? Doing a whole book yourself as a first project is very much an uphill struggle. In the "old days" it was not uncommon for well-intentioned people to come to PG and then give up part-way through their first attempt. These days, it is usual to direct people to Distributed Proofing first, as that is a good place a to learn the basics of what we do, and can give you a start that can make your first book much easier. It also might help to realize that Project Gutenberg is a rather decentralized volunteer organization. Those of us involved all have "real-life" jobs and concerns to worry about, and still spend many hours doing our best to make PG work, though it sometimes is frustrating to do so. If you do feel that you are being ignored, please believe that it is not intentional. So, to sum it all up: Recomendation: Go spend a week or so proofing pages at distributed proofers. Alternate: If that does not appeal or is not workable for you, and you still want to do a book on your own, you are welcome to do so. Get ready to spend some time reading through the FAQ mentioned above, and to ask some questions. And do take it one step at a time (ie, asking about copyright clearances, and how the mailing list works, and file formats all at once might not be a good choice.) Thanks, Andrew On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 BunnyCAW@aol.com wrote:
You know, about 2 weeks ago, I tried to find out how to join your project and start entering a number of older books that I have in my possession. I tried finding instructions on how to do this on the web page, but found only muddy descriptions of how to go about it. There were no firm guidelines such as USE THIS FORMAT or HERE IS THE PROGRAM THAT WE TYPCIALLY USE. I tried to send scans to obtain copyright clearance only to have the message bounce. I tried resending them with the _at_ changed to @ and never got a reply from whomever was handling the clearances. So, since joining as a PROOFREADER was all that I could find info on, I joined this list. I submitted a couple of elementary questions such as what format to type these books into, etc. My message has NEVER appeared on this digest. All that HAS appeared is a bunch of people bickering and complaining about some arrogant twit. Can we all just GET OFF OF IT and do something constructive? How about someone clueing me in as to a very basic HOW do I reach this person who clears the books for copyright? And should the output of my text files be a TXT file? Or something else? (Then of course there are questions such as how you typically handle/format tables of contents and page breaks, how illustrations are typically treated, etc.) I know that one person is not THAT important, so I won't threaten to leave if I'm not answered, but you'd surely think that you all would welcome something else to do than to gripe about this Bowerbird person... As for me... I'm getting tired of waiting and being ignored.
participants (5)
-
Aaron Cannon -
Andrew Sly -
Bruce Albrecht -
BunnyCAW＠aol.com -
Jared Buck