[bksvol-discuss] Re: New Marissa's List

  • From: Elizabeth and Burton <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 10:46:20 -0500

I agree that the answer to books lingering on step 1 for months is not for somebody to grab them. I was mentioning it because somebody needs to take a book and work on it or reject it.


E.
At 05:19 AM 12/30/2006, you wrote:
Hi Elizabeth,

While I am always concerned at the size of step 1 and the number of books that have been sitting up there forever I have been noticing some trends in the books checked out for editing that concern me.

It seems we have several volunteers taking lots of books at a time and then holding them for long periods before finally validating them. One recently let 30! books expire that were all held for months. Now why someone needs 30 books is beyond me. I can understand having something like 5 or maybe even 10, but when someone has more than that, it just means that it will be quite a while before those books hit the website, as there are books that are going to get done at the end, probably months later. It denies another volunteer the opportunity to work on the books, and thus denies the opportunity for books to become part of the collection for all to read in a timely manner--one of the biggest advantages that BookShare has.

In the case of Crisis by Robin Cook someone submitted it at the end of August or the beginning of September. Gerald picked up a second copy that had been submitted later on and held it because it had some minor problems. We were hoping the other copy would surface back on step1, but it never did--and believe me when I say each of us were very digilent checkers. Eventually he was able to get the information he needed and validated the book recently. Now we know the other copy is still out there since its on the latest Marissa's List. Whoever has it now of course needs to reject it and the original submitter who deserved credit for submitting first will not get it. I'm also confused as to how this book could take this much time to do, Gerald did it in a matter of a few days from my understanding. Presuming one volunteer had the other copy for a majority of the time its been out there, it would mean that it was taking them weeks to do the validation. If someone takes a book and cannot reasonably expect to get it done in a good time frame they either have too many books, or are too busy and should consider letting someone else do it, and if the book is still awaiting validation when they have more time, tackle it then. I would say for a normal book a reasonable time frame is 4 weeks, perhaps more if someone is waiting for a library copy.

Okay, now that I have ranted a bit--not particularly directed at anyone, I will climb off of my soap box. My intention is not to spark a big debate, nor to dictate what anyone has to do, but to point out some pitfalls. I felt it prudent to mention them here because I don't want folks to rush out and grab a bunch of these older books all at once (i.e. I don't want one person grabbing a huge number of them because then they'll just be sitting on Step2 rather than Step1--unaccessible to other volunteers).

A list of the oldest books can be found at the following URL per normal:

http://www.jbrownell.com/bks/step1old.asp

The list is sorted with the oldest at the top, and it is updated at least once a day. All titles submitted before Fear The Fever by Jeff Gelb, Michael Garrett (and including that title) are more than 270 days old (9x30)...since you specifically asked for 9 months.

I'm still working on my new version of the Expansion Initiative that will feature an enhanced Step1 Oldest Books page. You will be able to see a book's file format, the quality rating assigned by the submitter (or validator in the case of a kick back) and the date submitted. It will also contain a filter that will allow you to display different time periods than the default 90 days.

I had hoped to go live with the new version by the end of this year, but it will almost for certain be in January. I have run into a few things that I want to address and I have been lax the last few days about working on it. Not to mention I will be out of town for New Year's eve, not the best time to launch a totally new system.

Happy New Year to all,
Jake
----- Original Message ----- From: "Elizabeth and Burton" <thoth93@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 11:31 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: New Marissa's List


Easy goal.  Slight correction 27*365 = 9855
and I think next year is not leap year.  Sounds easily achievable though.

Particularly achievable if we seriously clean up the step 1 list.

Why do I think these two things relate? A step 1 list with a lot of older submits means people are repeatedly downloading a book and then returning it to step 1 in many cases. This means they are not free to work on another book. It also means one particuar book has been worked on and on and on and goes nowhere.

Jake, can we have a list of books on step 1 which are over nine months old please? This will give those of us who want it a list to clean up. They ought to be processed or rejected.

E.
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