Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Yet I look at the thriving Public Domain efforts in the world, and doggone it, it's not bad, and steadily improves over time. Perfect? Probably not, but neither are commercial proofing jobs. And I can't understand why "outsourcing" free labor is such a bad idea...
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Distributed Proofreaders does an excellent job, but it works because the volunteers know that their effort goes into making public domain stuff widely available. There will be far fewer volunteers for doing proofing for commercial organizations.
But the main reason is that free labour can't be relied upon. It will cost the publisher a lot more if a deadline is missed because a volunteer didn't get finished (or perhaps started) on time.
And then there's the need for paid staff to find volunteers, assign tasks, ensure confidentiality, and check the work coming back in.
I can certainly see why relying on volunteers is a bad move for a commercial organization.