Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

gutenberg.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 81 posts

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#51

Post by adhesive_wombat »

hiq wrote: post #29

How does it compare with Wikisource? It looks like Project Gutenberg is older, but given https://www.gutenberg.org/help/errata.html is looks like the UX (as a contributor) is better on Wikisource.

Wikisource (at least the English one) has a slightly different take on it in that they (now) generally expect proofreading to proceed according to a PDF or DjVu scan of a specific original edition (and you can have multiple editions). There's a page-by-page proofreading interface. Project Gutenberg world are usually non-specific editions and might be a mish-mash or contain editorial fix-ups.

Projects like Distributed Proofreaders also operate on a top-down basis where there's a project manager for each book. On Wikisource, you can just get stuck in where you like. No one technically "owns" anything.

The Monthly Challenge [1] is quite a fun new innovation where there's a bit more community activity, as a lot of people like to plug away on their own projects, which some people think is a bit boring.

[1]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Community_collabor...

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#52

Post by ghaff »

yosefjaved1 wrote: post #18
yewenjie wrote: post #14

While it is a great project, posting a link to it is almost like posting a link to Wikipedia.

Funny enough, I never heard of it until yesterday when I was looking to buy a book called "Calculus Made Easy" from Amazon and read a review that mentioned not to buy the book because it was a printed version of the it on Project Gutenberg. I was debating if I should post up the link or not because I did find other posts that mentioned Project Gutenberg on HN when I did a quick search; however, I didn't see any post…

I think you'll find that even on HN, there are a lot of people who don't read a lot of books that aren't reference books--and even fewer who have much interest in mostly 100+ year-old novels.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#53

Post by zozbot234 »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #37
hiq wrote: post #29

How does it compare with Wikisource? It looks like Project Gutenberg is older, but given https://www.gutenberg.org/help/errata.html is looks like the UX (as a contributor) is better on Wikisource.

Gutenberg was a pioneer and sits at the centre of an ecosystem. Distributed Proofreaders and others like Standard ebooks build on Gutenberg texts and upstream fixes and corrections to them. https://www.pgdp.net/c/

DP proofread from book scans and upload the proofed and processed text to Gutenberg. Standard ebooks takes the Gutenberg texts and further enhances them. So they're operating on opposite stages of the pipeline.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#54

Post by zozbot234 »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #51
hiq wrote: post #29

How does it compare with Wikisource? It looks like Project Gutenberg is older, but given https://www.gutenberg.org/help/errata.html is looks like the UX (as a contributor) is better on Wikisource.

Wikisource (at least the English one) has a slightly different take on it in that they (now) generally expect proofreading to proceed according to a PDF or DjVu scan of a specific original edition (and you can have multiple editions). There's a page-by-page proofreading interface. Project Gutenberg world are usually non-specific editions and might be a mish-mash or contain editorial fix-ups. Projects like Distributed…

The "ownership" model on DP means that they're left with a huge backlog of fully-proofread drafts stuck in the "post-processing" stage that never see the light of day on PG. On WS the equivalent to post-processing is a community-driven process, there's no fixed ownership but only the do-ocracy of those who put in the work.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#55

Post by adhesive_wombat »

zozbot234 wrote: post #54
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikisource (at least the English one) has a slightly different take on it in that they (now) generally expect proofreading to proceed according to a PDF or DjVu scan of a specific original edition (and you can have multiple editions). There's a page-by-page proofreading interface. Project Gutenberg world are usually non-specific editions and might be a mish-mash or contain editorial fix-ups. Projects like Distributed…

The "ownership" model on DP means that they're left with a huge backlog of fully-proofread drafts stuck in the "post-processing" stage that never see the light of day on PG. On WS the equivalent to post-processing is a community-driven process, there's no fixed ownership but only the do-ocracy of those who put in the work.

Wikisource does also have a lot of unfinished works, but it has that advantage that literally anyone[1] with an interest can come along and push them into a proofread state.

In fact, the Monthly Challenge is also deliberately trying to promote this, as well as converting very old copy-paste drive-bys (often from PG, actually, from before Wikisource had the page-by-page proofreading) into modern editions verifiable against a specific original.

[1]: You don't even need do to register an account to enter the text, but you do to mark a page as proofread, since there's a two-pass validation system and it works by accounts. It doesn't require an email.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#56

Post by WalterBright »

kaba0 wrote: post #49
WalterBright wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you would find few people in the art community who agree with this. I happen to know some successful artists (you'd recognize their names), and they are very much in it for the big bucks. You will find many who say they are in it for the purity, but their actions belie it. BTW, your ideal society has a name, it's called a "commune". Communes have been tried over and over in history. Something like 10,000 ha…

A commune in isolation can not protect itself. Another more aggressive group will overtake them given time. That's why I don't believe that end-goal communism or anarchism could ever work (where the former is contrary to many people's idea, is about small communes, not some Big Government). But with a necessarily strong government it is absolutely not impossible to scale a small commune to a whole country. Pair it wi…

A commune in isolation can not protect itself.

The US ones did not fail because some more aggressive group overtook them. They failed because they did not work and eventually the members tired of it and left.

The state-sponsored kibbutzen in Israel also fail, because they can't exist without massive government subsidy.

Communism has been tried many times on a nation scale. 100% failure.

Your ideas are not new and they have been tried, again and again. They just don't work. They don't work on a small scale, they don't work on a large scale. They don't work when voluntary, they don't work by force.

There is just something about communism that is fundamentally anti-ethical to human nature.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#57

Post by adhesive_wombat »

marcodiego wrote: post #12

I imagine a machine. Something similar to that automated coca-cola machines which you choose the flavor of your soda, pay it and it spits it. Imagine a machine where you could choose a book from project Gutenberg, pay it and have it instantly printed for you.

I have the same dream, but I'd like it to plug into the Internet Archive.

Then again, the cost to the world's trees would be substantial because I'd remember about the Serials in Microfilm project[1]. Seriously, check out these images of the collection[2].

Then again, again, think of all the carbon you could sequestrate by printing that many books (and keeping them).

I've even considered DIY book binding so I can print fun things, but it's (obviously) quite a mission. Occasionally I see a novelty reprint of an old volume of a periodical in a museum shop and I start searching for book presses and glue and then sanity prevails.

[1]: https://archive.org/details/sim_microfilm

[2]: https://archive.org/details/SerialsOnMicrofilmCollection/IMG...

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#58

Post by revolvingocelot »

WalterBright wrote: post #48
SequoiaHope wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is going to do the jobs that need doing but are not so pleasant - like washing dishes? Generally this work can either be done by machines, it can be done by the people who are eating the food, it can be done in rotation by all people who participate in the system, or it can be done by people who feel like washing dishes is their way to contribute back to society. I am definitely a big fan of the idea that to ma…

> I think you would find few people in the art community who agree with this. I happen to know some successful artists (you'd recognize their names), and they are very much in it for the big bucks. You will find many who say they are in it for the purity, but their actions belie it. BTW, your ideal society has a name, it's called a "commune". Communes have been tried over and over in history. Something like 10,000 ha…

What a repulsive argumentative style.

>>>I also expect that making money is a prime motivator for artists, and also drives the quality of their work.

is a much less hostile claim than

>I happen to know some successful artists (you'd recognize their names), and they are very much in it for the big bucks.

which could have been made in the initial comment, but then parent wouldn't be able to Other the grandparent for the heretical belief that people can work together at scale. The parent simply knows better. Even when the grandparent cites what Sikh society verifiably does, which is simply a cultural reorganization of existing resources, not a remodel of the human heart, and certainly within the power of much richer European and North American societies as they now stand, let alone what at-scale automation could provide -- it's never addressed because that's ackshually a commune. Which, as the astute reader will learn by reading further, doesn't work, 100% of the time. In fact, they're "anti-ethical". [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31148652

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#59

Post by ineedasername »

pmoriarty wrote: post #36
robonerd wrote: post #17

LibriVox ( https://librivox.org/ ) has free audiobooks for many of these public domain books. They're recorded by volunteers, so the quality is a grab bag. Some of them are quite good though. Most recently I listened to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court read by John Greenman ( https://librivox.org/a-connecticut-yankee-in-king-arthurs-co... ) Goofy book, but very entertaining.

I can recommend The Count of Monte Cristo , read by David Clarke.[1] This is a fantastic book, read by an extraordinary reader. [1] - https://librivox.us/book/6697

That is such an amazing revenge story, intricately plotted with excellent characters.

Re: Project Gutenberg – Library of over 60k free eBooks

#60

Post by TaylorAlexander »

WalterBright wrote: post #48
SequoiaHope wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is going to do the jobs that need doing but are not so pleasant - like washing dishes? Generally this work can either be done by machines, it can be done by the people who are eating the food, it can be done in rotation by all people who participate in the system, or it can be done by people who feel like washing dishes is their way to contribute back to society. I am definitely a big fan of the idea that to ma…

> I think you would find few people in the art community who agree with this. I happen to know some successful artists (you'd recognize their names), and they are very much in it for the big bucks. You will find many who say they are in it for the purity, but their actions belie it. BTW, your ideal society has a name, it's called a "commune". Communes have been tried over and over in history. Something like 10,000 ha…

You seem to have ignored the point where I cited my sources of what I am talking about working successfully in India right now. It’s not a failure in fact it is a major success. Seriously, watch the video is it heart warming! It’s also very real!
Post reply on HN