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How about you set up a peer system where authors who do not speak fluent English can get a volunteer to proof read their article and make suggestions to grammar and spelling. I think this would be great for some authors who cannot always voice themselves in English and I know it would be great to receive active collaboration from peers before actually completely submitting the article.
What do you think?
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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I think it's a great idea - even those of us who are fluent English speakers need proof-reading! I agree it's always helpful to get feedback before posting something.
Speaking from professional experience, proof-reading is not generally a very attractive job, but I suppose you could attribute some kind of kudos points to encourage people to do it.
Having a pool of trustworthy people to edit articles would also possibly relieve the pressure on whoever is in charge of moving things from UserItems to their final categories - something that currently takes several months.
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Emma Burrows wrote: Speaking from professional experience, proof-reading is not generally a very attractive job, but I suppose you could attribute some kind of kudos points to encourage people to do it.
Actually, I kind of enjoy it myself - as long as it's not my only job. It's nice after a day of intense brainwork to be able to do something a little less taxing on my brain while still making money. Add to that that I can be helping CP, and it's quite attractive! 
Emma Burrows wrote: Having a pool of trustworthy people to edit articles would also possibly relieve the pressure on whoever is in charge of moving things from UserItems to their final categories - something that currently takes several months.
Chris is working on this, so hopefully things will get better soon! I'll probably end up as one of the editors. Chris and I have been discussing the possibility, but right now he must be busy because I haven't received a reply from him for about a week.
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J. Dunlap wrote: It's nice after a day of intense brainwork to be able to do something a little less taxing on my brain while still making money
I'm not sure that Brad was originally talking about paid editors; obviously, as a job, it's a slightly different matter. I was questioning how many articles people would edit with no reward at all (things like having your name on the article or in a "best editors" list, etc, being rewards in my opinion).
Job-wise, I certainly think that if CP is having trouble finding an in-house editor in Toronto, or even if they do, they should consider employing a free-lance editor or two (hint, hint  ).
As to the job satisfaction, it certainly depends on the money, but also the quality of the original and what you're supposed to be checking... If it's only language, then you're right, it can indeed be relaxing. OTOH, I've proofed documents that required a great deal of editing and terminology research because the author had done such a poor job, and ended up feeling that I should have written the thing from scratch (and got the higher fee...).
Either way, I would definitely volunteer. I like it around here, and my nitpicking instincts can't help feeling that some articles do need a little help. 
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Emma Burrows wrote: I'm not sure that Brad was originally talking about paid editors
Correct, I don't know why Chris would ever consider the whole paid editors only thing. I think a few key editors to wath over things and a group of volunteers would help big time.
And this is more just a peer review system I am suggesting. This way it is easier for everyone to understand and much more productive environment.
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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Bradml wrote: I don't know why Chris would ever consider the whole paid editors only thing
Because we've tried volunteers many, many times over the last 7 years and they don't last. If you pay someone then you can be guaranteed of having them work. If someone is volunteering you have no right to yell if the backlog gets bad. Invariably volunteers last for about 2-4 weeks and then they need to get back to their real lives.
Editing also requires a great deal of attention to detail and once you've found someone good it's easy to track and check their work. Having numerous volunteers, all of whom work sporadically, means you may need to check work more often than normal simply because they may have forgotten some of the smaller details.
With regards to peer review: what sort of system would you consider? A pre-publishing review or a post-publish review?
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I agree that you would probably get better work from a paid editor. That being said it isn't like it woud be hard to setuo a payment system for editors who do the work online. This way if they don't meet the satisfactory output they will not recieve the same pay (depending on the way you set it up).
Al that being said having a few platinum members volunteering when you get a major backlog would definately be of huge benefeit to you guys.
Annd with regards to the peer review, I was thinking of a pre-publishing system where peers (Golds + Platinums to keep standards whilst conserving numbers) can nominate themselves and select the fields of articles they would like to deal with (C++, C, PHP, Assembly, VB etc.) and then when a new poster asks for peer review the article is placed in a special holding cell for the potential peer.
Or you could have a system where articles up for review are listed to the peers and they can select one they are interested in editing. Make sure to limit this to one at a time though, otherwise old kyle may just have some fun with it. The aricles listed would be in the peers chosen field.
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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Bradml wrote: when a new poster asks for peer review the article is placed in a special holding cell for the potential peer.
Typically I find that if someone is actually asking for peer review then typically they don't need it. The very act of asking shows they care about it so have already put in sufficient effort for an article to be posted (at least as an unedited). The real value of peer review would be to hold all articles from authors who have not yet posted an article and not allow the article to be read until it's been approved. That would remove the junk articles we get.
The problem there is that there is a very real chance articles could remain in the pool for quite a while before being given the go-ahead which could be very discouraging for authors.
Now if we had a full time editor onboard we could make it there job to review the list remnants every day... 
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I think this would most benefeit members from a non English speaking country so that they can communicate with the rest of us. As an added bonus all the other others may just find comfort from a peer review system.
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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Chris Maunder wrote: Now if we had a full time editor onboard we could make it there job to review the list remnants every day...
You know my offer .
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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Bradml wrote: You know my offer
And I know you stubbornly refuse to come to Toronto 
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: And I know you stubbornly refuse to come to Toronto
Tell you what, I'll send you a cutout of myself that you can stick in front of a desk and yell at whenever something needs doing.
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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Chris Maunder wrote: If you pay someone then you can be guaranteed of having them work.
That's what I thought too. However, as Brad said, I'm sure most people will have at least a Paypal account. Paying editors by the piece (or by word count) would give them an incentive to do more than a couple of weeks' work for you. Enough editors "on call" as it were would help you when things get too much. You could either pay immediately on reception or get the people to invoice you per month (which would further separate the clowns from the serious people, IMO).
As to picking trustworthy people who can do the job properly, I agree with Brad that Code Project membership status would be one way to determine whether someone is generally serious about this site. The writing abilities of article authors can easily be checked, and although forum postings will generally be of a less polished standard, reading a few will tell you whether the person can string two words together properly. Beyond that, of course, a good old resumé will help you find people who have actually done this kind of thing before.
Anyway, I would definitely be up for it! I'm a Gold member, I've written a few well-rated articles, I've done freelance editing before, and I even have a Master's degree in English. What more could you want?
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Emma Burrows wrote: What more could you want?
Someone in Toronto
I'm working to get a couple more contract editors onboard just to help get the load off me but we are working as hard as we can to have someone in the office who will be part of the team, who can discuss taxonomy, trends, what we can do to help authors and who will be dedicated full time to the task of editing.
Part timers will help get us through but we need to have someone full time, on staff. It just makes everything about 100x easier.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: Someone in Toronto
Damn. I knew you'd mention that.
Still, if you are looking for a contract editor - or indeed for volunteers paid in kudos - I can probably make myself useful. And in the meantime, I'll work on upping my "Contributor" status to "Writer". Gives me a purpose in life...
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Hi Brad,
Bradml wrote: How about you set up a peer system where authors who do not speak fluent English
I think this is a very good idea. In the past, I volunteered on another site (which appeared to have much less resources than Code Project). Nothing ever materialized.
Jeff
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I know this topic has come up before, but the problem is still there. There is an ever growing of number of users now using the ascii " " as a display name. I origionaly thought it was just the one user, but I have seen several fix their errors, and still users remain without a name.
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Why no create a white list instead of a black one?
Brad
Australian
- Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript"
A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
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This has been fixed.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Hi All,
I'm trying to email a Contributor, but I can't seem to locate the email link on http://www.codeproject.com/script/profile/...[^].
Any ideas where this can be found? (I understand it only works if the email has been verified).
Jeff
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The only way I know of is to goto a member's forum post and click "Email". Other than that, I don't know of any other way of contacting a member directly.
Maybe CP can put a "Contact" link in each profile.
Trinity: Neo... nobody has ever done this before.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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Locate any one message posted by the author and use the 'Email Author' link in that message.
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Jeffrey Walton wrote: Any ideas where this can be found?
Was disabled for contributors see post ->Re: Link to email article authors directly[^]
Chris Maunder wrote:
Our members were getting hassled, spammed, threatended - you name it. We pulled the "Email Author" link to stop this.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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Jeffrey Walton wrote: How about CAPTCHA with an Opt-Out choice?
Well that would eliminate one of the three reasons Chris gave. The other two are probably more important though. The suggested way to contact an author is through the message board in the appropriate article/
Chris Maunder wrote:
Our members were getting hassled, spammed, threatended - you name it. We pulled the "Email Author" link to stop this.
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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