Ingemar, har du någon som helst grund för att uttala dig om vad jag vill göra? Jag är en av "vi andra som korr-läser" och jag tror inte du har någon som helst aning om huruvida jag vill "helst själv göra slut på det jag börjat" eller inte. Jag ser gärna att andra korrläser samma verk som jag håller på med, och jag skulle bli lätt irriterad om det visade sig att man kastade bort en månad bara för att någon av missriktad hänsynhet väntade för att se om jag skulle ändra något mer.
För mig har det varit självklart att vem som helst kan korr-läsa vad som helst när som helst på Runeberg. Om du har fått något annat intryck så kan jag ju förstå om du är irriterad. Är det någon instruktion eller annan sida som ger ett vilseledande intryck på den här punkten? Borde i lägga till något stycke i korr-instruktionen om att andra kan hoppa in och redigra i verk som man själv håller på med?
Christer Romson
Absolut, du har rätt. Det står inget om vad man kan eller inte kan. Och det är inga nyheter för mig heller. Jag visste det när jag började korr-läsa. Men i alla fall ...
Förlåt om jag växlar till engelska nu (det är ju det "officiella" Runeberg språket) men jag tror inte jag kan hitta de rätta orden på svenska. Jag hoppas att ni förstår mig ändå.
This has to do with why I am doing anything for Project Runeberg at all. It is a personal statement and may not apply to everyone, or anyone, else. Nonetheless, I would be surprised if I am alone.
First of all let me say that the only work I have done anything with is Svenska Familj-Journalen. It's a monthly magazine - about 400 pages per year. I like reading the articles, it gives me a small measure of historical perspective of what people were thinking and doing "back then". I have no interest in novels or encyclopedias or technical manuals. There are many of those types of work available in Runeberg and if that is what you like to read and work with, then that's great. But they're not for me.
Maybe I should just read the pages and not participate in the project at all? Alas, I also like the idea of making things better for those who come after me, so I "joined up". That aspect too gives me a certain satisfaction. So you see that I'm not in this just for the sake of proofreading as many pages as possible. My main reason for participating is because it gives me some pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment to do so. I don't see that anywhere in the Project goals, nor do I see how it could be. The purpose of the Project *is* to proofread as much as possible. But that is not *my* goal. If you think about it I suspect that most of you share this feeling. After all, you are all getting paid the same amount of money as I am.
One of the few things that I can *see* that represents the amount of effort I have spent on this activity is that green proof-bar line. Every day I look at that green line and I say to myself: I DID THAT! I can see that it's a little longer every day. Every millimeter represents an hour of my time. I am proud of it! It's my paycheque - the only visible confirmation that I've done anything at all. It makes me happy to make that dark green line grow longer. Proof-reading a page here and a page there does not give me the same feeling of achievement. Maybe *you* don't care about seeing any confirmation of what you've done, but *I* do care.
So when that green line moves without me having done anything, then it also ceases to mean anything. And there goes my payback - out the window.
In Svenska Familj-Journalen there are 19 volumes. Only two of those were all green. I did those two. No one else has been interested enough to make a concerted effort to complete any of those volumes. Just me. And I was 90% of the way through a third volume. Then someone decided that they just had to jump into the line in front of me and complete the last little bit. WHY? It wasn't a coincidence that the first 90% of the line was green. It was because someone (me) was deliberately going through it from start to end. It was obvious. If *you* do nothing at all, the line will continue to grow (as I work on it) and soon the volume will be complete anyway. And the Project editors will be pleased to have another volume done.
There are many thousands of pages available in the other volumes - proof-reading any one of them will also contribute to the Project. The thing is that there is nothing *special* about any of those. The only *special* pages were the ones that I hadn't got around to yet. They stood out like a sore thumb, a bunch of red and light green at the end of a long line of dark green. They were special because *I* had made them special. Not you. So let me continue.
Now I am going to continue where I left off and re-proof-read the remainder of the volume anyway. I can see that it is not in fact "all ok", and I really DO want it to actually be correct. I will have to scrutinize the text just as carefully now as I do when reading a previously untouched page. But now it will not be a pleasure. There will be nothing to show me what I have accomplished. So it will just be a chore.
So there you have it. You may not agree with what I have written. It is not in agreement with the official Runeberg policy, but that is how I feel about it
I now consider this topic closed and do not intend to comment further.
Ingemar