Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I did not say that at all. I said that the vast majority of the books in our library have not been proofread, and that any of our members could help to improve our library by picking a book - any book you fancy - and proofreading it.
It seems to me that there are a great many people willing to complain, but very, very few who are willing to actually help make the library better, and personally I find this somewhat disappointing.
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To compare an original text to an uploaded text is, to me, the same time-wise as being the one to make the uploaded ebook in the first place, so it's really the same thing in my opinion, and without the respect of being the uploader. I have no idea how fast you are at proofreading (or transcribing - whatever you would call the process of creating an ebook to upload) but not everyone is as fast as you.
For instance, let's say I decide to proofread one of your books. Let's say I could read 40 books this year. I have no idea how long it would actually take me to proofread one - checking back and forth between the original text and the upload - but my guess is three to five times as long as it would take me to read one. And then, there may be no errors to correct or only minor errors, or you may not agree with the ones I find and not change it. So for my trouble, I've lost out on reading three to five other books this year from my already comparatively small total of 40 (compared to others around here) and for no real benefit. No thank you.
Granted, I'm not one of the most vehement on the subject and I may be one of the slower readers here, but even if one could read faster than I and were more vehement on the subject, I don't think they should have to volunteer to proofread to be allowed to raise concerns about certain uploads. Hopefully the uploaders derive pleasure from their work, and good for them, but not everyone who likes to read would also even halfway enjoy proofreading and such, or be good at it.
I think, to me anyway, in light of revelations such as from Alex Bell, the point is not that everything should be scrupulously proofread for mistakes, but rather to have a guideline and culture here to encourage people not to
purposely change texts, and if they do so to clearly state it.