[bksvol-discuss] User Credits for Renewing a Bookshare.org Subscription
- From: "Gustavo Galindo" <Gustavo.G@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:42:53 -0800
Gentlepeople,
Hello, this is a response to Cindy's email this morning about user
credits; my apologies to the list for the delay in replying; we're still
trying to climb out of the backlog of work from being out at conferences
so long.
We're a bit behind on book approvals as well; even though i approved
over 40 late yesterday evening, we still have over 300 books in the
administrator queue. Believe me, i wish the number was indeed a lot
smaller. i'm getting to that backlog as quickly as i can, and spending a
Wednesday evening approving 40 books from home is not my idea a rousing
good time, but i did want and need to make a dent in my adminstrator
approval backlog. How can the volunteers help with this backlog, most of
you are asking? Easy: two things: One is your patience. We get to the
books and to your inquiries as soon as we can. Two is your help so that
when a book gets to me it's actually ready for my approval. The more i
spend on one book trying to resolve issues about its copy-right, its DRM
compliance; its validity, or it's quality compared to previously
published copies is time taken away from other books i could review and
approve.
So, on to user credits and Bookshare.org. A user earns credits for each
book that gets published. Each book that a user submits and that we
publish generates $2.50 (two dollars and fifty cents) credit for the
submitter when the book gets published on the Bookshare.org website.
Each book that a volunteer validates generates $.50 (fifty cents) in
credit when the book gets published on the Bookshare.org website.
We make no guarantees whatsoever as to when we will approve a book;
unfortunately, we just can't. We never have. We strive to make books
available to our subscribers as soon as we can. i do not typically
approve books based on the identity of the submitter or validator, so
there's no relationship between that and the user's credit amount.
However, users who need to have one or two more books published to take
their user credits to the magic number of $50.00 have and do send me
email with info on their books that are in my administrator queue; i'm
happy to focus effort to those titles first the next time i have a few
minutes to get into the book approval mode, as some of you can attest.
But i must admit that if a user has 13 books scattered throughout the
various stages of the submission process is going to be tougher to sort
out; it just is.
Every month when we recap subscription activity, we take great joy in
figuring out the number of people who have paid for their renewals
completely through sweat equity. For the last month that i've compiled
data, which is February of 2006, 6 of your cohorts paid for their
renewals in this manner. Yes, i said "paid"; i firmly believe that your
contributions have tremendous value. That this is not only possible but
also achievable is something we should all be proud of. Bookshare.org
definitely works as an example of a collaborative community effort.
If any of you have additional questions about Bookshare.org's user
credit options, please feel free to voice them on the discussion list.
i'm happy to make sure everybody's informed. If you have specific
questions about your credits or your book submissions, please write to
me offline. if you have questions as to why the volunteer home page or
the wish list page have not been updated yet, they're on my to-dos for
this Friday.
Thanks for your time.
gustavo galindo
Manager, Bookshare.org Website
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