Dangerously e-books: How do I know if my ebooks have been altered?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Aw, come off it, will you? AlexBell admitted to that one change in one upload. He should never have made that change, at least not unacknowledged. But that has been discussed ad nauseam earlier in this thread, with several uploaders coming forward and declaring that they would never alter text without acknowledging it. Many uploaders even provide links in their books to the sources they used so downloaders can verify the text at their leisure. Just read this thread from the beginning, will you, before going on and on about how you can't trust the uploads here anymore. Or provide trustworthy uploads yourself, how about that?

ETA: Oh, pynch and Harry were quicker...

The problem comes when the eBooks are modified and we are not informed. I'm not as bothered if we are informed so we know not to download that specific eBook. How many others have been modified that we don't know about?

I can say that I have not modified any of the eBooks I have posted. They are as they should be.

[jandrew]

Originally Posted by pynch

Try it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! It’s called “Spring Surprise.”

Oh my! Totally delicious.

Thank you.

It's like a dream.

I'm even feeling a bit euphoric, though that's probably jusst a ssugarr higgh.

Uh oh. sseeemss my leefftt haandd isss ttwwwittccchy aaandd I sseee aaa brriggghtt ligghtt wwhhwhnant jgngmaja oi aiga//......................

grandma? is that you?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Catlady

We don't know this unless specific uploaders tell us exactly what they've done with each upload.

And even then, they could be lying.

All that proves is they didn't do it by accident.

If you wish to be paranoid, there is still no proof whatsoever other than an original manuscript where you can verify the handwriting.

Meanwhile, be grateful to the people both here and at PG who are certainly providing us all a lot more than we would have otherwise.

For most people, it would not be the end of the world even if it turned out that revisions for modernity and other such stuff were being done -- I imagine most of the downloads are by people who simply don't care about exactitude.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Why don't you ask the uploader before downloading their book? This is a forum after all.

Are you serious?

How about the uploaders specify what they've done with any title they've uploaded?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Seems to me that there's not an awful lot of gratitude being shown here to the folks who freely provide books to the MR library.

Seems to me that the people who upload WITHOUT making changes to text should reserve some ire for the people who do make changes. They are the ones who've poisoned the well.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And even then, they could be lying.

All that proves is they didn't do it by accident.

If you wish to be paranoid, there is still no proof whatsoever other than an original manuscript where you can verify the handwriting.

I very much resent the repeated charge that being concerned about unauthorized changes to text in uploads is paranoia. Words are important. Ever read Animal Farm?

Meanwhile, be grateful to the people both here and at PG who are certainly providing us all a lot more than we would have otherwise.

For most people, it would not be the end of the world even if it turned out that revisions for modernity and other such stuff were being done -- I imagine most of the downloads are by people who simply don't care about exactitude.

Don't care? THAT is the problem. We should care.

I cannot believe that folks here who complain about simple typos and too much space between lines and bad line breaks and other formatting errors don't seem to give a damn about actual changes to WORDS.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Are you serious?

How about the uploaders specify what they've done with any title they've uploaded?

How about you make a list of requirements uploaders have to meet before you deem their work worthy of a download? I'm sure everybody will be happy to comply.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I cannot believe that folks here who complain about simple typos and too much space between lines and bad line breaks and other formatting errors don't seem to give a damn about actual changes to WORDS.

I care. The only changes to the words I don't mind are actual corrected errors. But to go and change words because the poster personally don't like what's written or feels we are too stupid to understand the words is just wrong. If we don't understand the words, we can look them up or just pick a different book to read.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I cannot believe that folks here who complain about simple typos and too much space between lines and bad line breaks and other formatting errors don't seem to give a damn about actual changes to WORDS.

Why don't you just go and bother someone else? Everything you keep on complaining about has been dealt with seriously early on in this thread. We all DO care about words, and it is nothing less than insulting of you to keep on saying we don't. Really, I'm beginning to get seriously angry.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Full disclosure:

I recently uploaded The Queen of Hearts (a collection of novels written in the 1850s) by Wilkie Collins to the MR library. As well as changing 'gayety' to 'gaiety' and 'gayly' to 'gaily' I also changed 'gay' to 'light-hearted'. I did this because the English language has changed in the last 150 odd years. In our day 'a gay man' would almost certainly be read as 'a homosexual man,' and this is simply not what Collins meant - he would have used a different term if he had dared to mention a character's sexual orientation at all. I did add a note to the posting that I had updated spelling and hyphenation - I also changed 'to-day' to 'today' for example.

How does that grab you?

Just in case it's necessary: I make no judgement of any kind on anyone for his or her sexual orientation. It's none of my damn business.

Would you modify Shakespeare's works because we don't use that form of English any longer? What you've done is wrong. What you've done is basically telling us that we are too stupid to understand things the way the author intended. That we are too stupid to get the meaning of those works from the context of the book. You are not giving us credit for being able to read and understand what's written.

You should be ashamed for what you've done without making it known when you posted this modified book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

How about you make a list of requirements uploaders have to meet before you deem their work worthy of a download? I'm sure everybody will be happy to comply.

The only requirement should be to say that the book has or has not been modified so we know if we want it or not. If it has been modified, I for one would not want it.

Modified does not mean errors corrected. Modified means changing the words for the sake of changing the meaning of the book.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Would you modify Shakespeare's works because we don't use that form of English any longer? What you've done is wrong. What you've done is basically telling us that we are too stupid to understand things the way the author intended. That we are too stupid to get the meaning of those works from the context of the book. You are not giving us credit for being able to read and understand what's written.

You should be ashamed for what you've done without making it known when you posted this modified book.

JUST READ THE BLOODY THREAD, PLEASE. REALLY, IT'S ALL BEEN DEALT WITH. NO NEED TO RECYCLE IT ALL AGAIN.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I very much resent the repeated charge that being concerned about unauthorized changes to text in uploads is paranoia. Words are important. Ever read Animal Farm?



Don't care? THAT is the problem. We should care.

I cannot believe that folks here who complain about simple typos and too much space between lines and bad line breaks and other formatting errors don't seem to give a damn about actual changes to WORDS.

The difference is that reading a book with mangled formatting ruins your ability to read and enjoy the story.
Reading a book with revisions that you don't know about is a perfectly pleasant reading experience.

Most people don't really care about the exact original words because it wouldn't change anything for them. Plenty of people will read the revised version even if it has a warning to that effect, and IIRC you yourself are fine with it just so long as there is a warning?

Yeah. All those people -- they don't give a darn about changes to the words.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Don't care? THAT is the problem. We should care.

I cannot believe that folks here who complain about simple typos and too much space between lines and bad line breaks and other formatting errors don't seem to give a damn about actual changes to WORDS.

Do you care enough to put in some effort and do something about it, because you can easily do so if you really do care.

The overwhelming majority of the books in the MR library have not been proof-read. What you - or anyone else - can do is to pick a book, go out and buy (or borrow from the library) a reputable printed edition of that book, and proof-read the ebook by comparing it comma by comma, word by word, line by line, against the printed text. Make a list of all the errors, and send them to the person who created the ebook.

It's easy to complain. Let's see if you're serious about doing something about it. If every regular MR member proof-read just one ebook a year, we'd quickly have the best ebook library in the world.

[JSWolf]

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