[bksvol-discuss] Re: a sort of raise for validators

  • From: "Evan Reese" <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:21:07 -0700

I'm not so sure, Monica. Most of the books I get here don't seem to have been checked for text quality. It may be that people on this list are more likely to fix up books whether they get credit or not, but I suspect that if you give people more money for doing what they already do, that is a minimum validation, then it is reasonable to expect that most of them will just do more of it, since there's more money to be made. People may not rush through their validations if they get less, because if people get too small a compensation for their work they may not think it is worth the effort to bother with the job at all and just move on to something else, especially if they have a scanner. But if you up the compensation, people may jump in and do at least the minimum to get it because it is now worth at least that much effort. I could be wrong, of course, and certainly the disparity of 5 to 1 for scanning versus validation is way out of line. But until some way of tying credits to quality is devised, I just don't see how paying people more for doing what my experience from downloading books indicates they do most of the time will not cause them to just do more of the same. (Of course, none of this applies to the deranged perfectionists, many of whom are on this list. They will work to fix up even terrible books because they have that inner compulsion that drives them on...))

Perhaps I'm too cynical in my old age, but it seems that most people would like to make the most money for the least amount of effort. That's why poor-quality scans are submitted in the first place. The financial credit is not connected to quality, so many - if not most - people don't care about it.

I will be happy to be proved wrong on any of this.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Monica Willyard" <plumlipstick@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 5:11 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: a sort of raise for validators



Hi, Lora. I see your point. No, I wouldn't rush through a validation, and the more I think about it, the more I know I'd still be helping out here. I came here for credits, but it really isn't why I stay. I know I only get fifty cents for validations, but I treat those books with as much care as my own scans. I wouldn't want anyone to rush through a validation just for credits. You're right though that a person would be more likely to rush his or her work with the fifty cent deal since it takes more books to earn credit that way.

I'm a little confused on where this number is coming from that only a few people pay for their membership with credits. I know I saw a blurb about quite a few people who had earned their memberships in a newsletter that Gustavo sent out this past spring. I thought I saw something like 20 people had earned memberships over the period of a few months. I didn't save it since the rest of the information wasn't something I needed for later reference. Does anyone else remember this, or have I been dreaming up numbers in my sleep-deprived state?

Monica Willyard

On Tuesday 9/26/2006 07:15 AM, you wrote:
Hi Monica,

I do understand that some people validate for credits, and there's nothing
at all wrong with that. On the other hand, many of the people on this list,
yourself included, strike me as dedicated, and willing to do a good job for
Bookshare at the same time. Originally, Evan I think it was, said that by
offering more money, people would just rush through their validations to get
the credits. Although this may be true for some, I still find it hard to
believe that most volunteers would do that. Didn't someone say that only
seven people paid for their memberships through their volunteer efforts?


On the other hand, I'd rather see the pay scale changed entirely.  Perhaps
$2 for submissions, and $1 for validation, would balance the scales more
equably.

This would balance so that 25 submissions, or 50 validations, would pay for
a renewal of membership.


And if offering more for validations would cause people to race through a
validation, offering less would seem to encourage people to race even
faster. After all, if I'll only make fifty cents per validation, that means
I'll have to validate 100 books to get through the renewal process. Better
validate real fast!


-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Monica Willyard
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 10:50 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: a sort of raise for validators

Hi, Cindy. I have a scanner and use Openbook to scan. What I was trying to
say is that without credits, I wouldn't do much on the validating side of
things. As it is, I do validation both for the credit and because we have a
pretty hefty step 1 page right now. Lora was talking about not validating
for credits, and that is what I was responding to. (smile)


Monica Willyard

On Monday 9/25/2006 11:34 PM, you wrote:
>Monica,
>
>One gets so much more monetary credit for scanning, and all you'd
>really have to do after a scan is to check the copyright page and put
>the right info in the submission form; go through the book and be sure
>no pages have been omitted (we've all done that, and double-scanned a
>page, too); and delete junk characters; and run a spell-check. So you
>validate because you don't have a scanner? I think some can be had
>relatively inexpensively and it might pay you n the long run.
>
>I don't blame you at all for validating for the credits. I probably
>would work for the credits, too. I admit that in my lifetime I have
>volunteered my time and efforts rather than donated money, not only
>because I feel I'm being useful but because I don't have that much
>money to donate. smile
>
>Cindy

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