User talk:Steve Quinn

Welcome to Wikisource

Hello, Steve Quinn, and welcome to Wikisource! Thank you for joining the project. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• Help pages, especially for proofreading
• Help:Beginner's guide to Wikisource
• Style guide
• Inclusion policy
• Wikisource:For Wikipedians

You may be interested in participating in

• Proofread of the Month
• Monthly Challenge
• Requested texts

Add the code {{active projects}}, {{PotM}} or {{Collaboration/MC}} to your page for current Wikisource projects.

You can put a brief description of your interests on your user page and contributions to another Wikimedia project, such as Wikipedia and Commons.

Have questions? Then please ask them at either

• Wikisource:Scriptorium; or
• Wikisource:Scriptorium/Help

I hope you enjoy contributing to Wikisource, the library that is free for everyone to use! In discussions, please "sign" your comments using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username if you're logged in (or IP address if you are not) and the date. If you need help, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question here (click edit) and place {{helpme}} before your question.

Again, welcome! -- billinghurst sDrewth 04:39, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

A good learning space is WS:PotM

… where there is always some level of activity, and we try not to pick a work that is too hard. billinghurst sDrewth 04:48, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

New guy

This is my second time here at Wikisource. It is very interesting and I notice a distinguished collection of works - from my brief look around. So far I notice two types of source material, which may be either book or shorter work. It appears that one type is mostly plain text, while the other type has photocopy of the pages in one column of the work, along with text in the other column of the work. Is this correct? Another question I have is how does a contributor show proof the book or shorter work has entered Public domain? I ask this question, because I have some content that I would like to contribute. I will probably have other questions later.Steve Quinn (talk) 03:48, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Welcome back. Our preference is now for works to have associated scans, so you will see us focusing more on getting .djvu files so we can proofread the work, then we transclude to the main namespace. That doesn't mean that we would refuse works without a scan. So, yes, correct.

We add the year parameter to the {{header}} of the work, and we add a licence to the work. If you are not sure about the status of a work, there is this page, or you can ask for advice at Scriptorium. Some factors will make it reasonably obvious that it is PD, while some work may need to be demonstrated, and some we need to get a permission to host against our Help:Copyright tags. billinghurst sDrewth 04:01, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

Do you use Wikimedia commons for images here at Wikisource? Specifically, I have a free image available of the book cover for The French Revolution: A History. Also, I can get all three volumes, (appears to be complete), if I can figure out how to use .djvu files. Also, I found a place where I can get the three volumes in plain text as well. In fact a particular site has the .djvu files available for download. I downloaded it in PDF format because I am used to this format. Am I moving too fast - being a new guy? Steve Quinn (talk) 04:46, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

• Yes, absolutely. If they can go to Commons, please do so. The only time that we upload locally is when Commons cannot take them as they do not meet US and home copyright. We solely work on US copyright.
• DjVu files are easy from our perspective. If you upload as File:Blahblah.djvu, then you create here Index:Blahblah.djvu, complete the details, and especially put <pagelist /> into the pages section, example at Index:Highways and Byways in Sussex.djvu
• We regularly source files from archive.org and you will regularly will find Google's PDF files there as DjVu, http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22The%20French%20Revolution%22
• If you have a plain text that HAS BEEN PROOFREAD then we can utilise that, though probably not a newb's task. If it hasn't been proofread, then the text layer will already be in the DjVu file and will be able to grabbed via our process.
• Too fast? Too early to tell. For all newb's it is always worth working on WS:PotM as that is always a text chosen with newbies in mind, and you can easily see what other editors are doing. billinghurst sDrewth 05:07, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

OK thanks for your helpful comments and the tip about WS:PotM. Besides downloading a book cover here or there, I will just focus on learning the ropes, beginning with WS:PotM. I understand what you mean by having a proof read text. I didn't notice that before. It makes sense, and it is important for both quality and accuracy Steve Quinn (talk) 05:43, 16 January 2010 (UTC)