Sparkler thread for LV projects

[kayray]

Hello new Sparknotes friends,

I am the one who reads all the intro emails and decides who is a spammer and who is a real volunteer. It's a tough job - those spammers are tricky beasts :)

If any of your friends have not had their accounts activated, ask them to email [librivox dot forum at gmail dot com] again and mention that they are from Sparknotes -- that way I will know they're not spammers and I will let them in. :)

[redundercover]

Hello all, Jack ("DJ Windex") here (again, I'll be using Red's account until my own can get verified). I have a question regarding the features of this site. I was wondering how the PM feature works. The message on my screen says I have to participate in the forums, but provides little regarding specifics. Exactly how much must I participate in order to use this feature?

[redundercover]

Hi Monika,
I apologize if we came off as rude or unappreciative to the website or any of the mods. Our comment system on Sparknotes functioned a lot differently than the typical forum, so I would be incredibly thankful if you could forgive us for any faux pas. Our moderators typically did not have a dialogue with us. Right now is a time of transition, and we are still learning the ropes, but rest assured we don’t mean any harm. We are planning to contribute in whatever ways we can, but it’s somewhat difficult to co-ordinate in a quick manner when some of us are juggling saving old messages alongside college classes and other responsibilities. If you or any of the mods have any further guidance on the social etiquette of the forums, that would be very much appreciated. Again, we don’t mean any harm, and we’re willing to contribute- just give us a moment to collect ourselves first.
Thank your for your patience,
Red

[Availle]

You could start getting used to our "social etiquette" by NOT sharing usernames/passwords.

In pretty much any online forum, this is a bannable offense for all people involved.

[redundercover]

I apologise for sharing my friend's account. I will work on verifying my own asap. Sorry again for causing trouble. -Jack

[moniaqua]

Ok, I can see that this is very exciting for you all.

If you or any of the mods have any further guidance on the social etiquette of the forums, that would be very much appreciated.

You all should have gotten a welcome-email with tons of interesting information The first step now is to introduce yourself here:
viewforum.php?f=17

Then if you like to record, we need to make sure that your files meet certain tech specs, so the next step is to do the 1-minute-test. It is not an audition, it is only because many people have different settings and archive can't deal with other soundfile formats as the specified.

If you "only" like to do PL (that is, to listen to files recorded by other volunteers and see if they are ok), you don't need to do the 1-minute-test. In this case you'll find helpful information here:
https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Guide_for_Proof-listeners.

[ej400]

Hi! My name is Elijah and we are glad to have you here to be honest, and thank you for joining. It's just that Librivox is more focused on recording audiobooks and proofreading them. Our off topic section here may look like it's used a lot, but this is a big and huge community so it has a lot of traffic. We try to stay more on topic, which would be in the other forums. Most of our topics here are about books, and things within that range.

Take me for example. Yes, I am a person who loves nascar and I would love to communicate with all the other people here who love nascar. But I am also a librivoxer, and so I work mostly on the other forums. But there are other sites to talk about nascar with other people who like nascar. Librivox is a place for people who like audiobooks, to communicate with each other and talk about audiobooks (and make them). But we do have off topic here as a cafeteria. So we work upstairs for 7 hours and come back down for a break (sort of ).

If your interested in reading for librivox, please check out the one minute test here https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/1-Minute_Test. You'll also need to check out this cool audio editor and download that so you can fix your recordings easy: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/. Then post your recording in Listeners and Editors wanted.

Were glad that you guys want to chat, and that you must be good friends, but if your going to use our off topic forums, we do just ask that you stay on topic with what librivox's main goal, which is to provide as many free audiobooks for the public, and not so much as with chatting off topic. You will also need to use your own account, not a shared account, so that we know who we are talking to. Personally, I like making friends with new members and it would be difficult if I don't know which person is using the account. I don't mean this in a rude way, and I wish you much luck. Happy recording!

[jedialonza]

(I'm still not sure how you excise partial quotes into replies, so I'm going to reply to people in separate comments. Oof.)

@ Ava

Yes, your mission is more specific than what I said, but I think the general concept still stands conceptually.
LV is like a workplace, and I intend to treat it as such. (As mentioned, I'm not working IRL right now: when I'm here, LV will be my work). I'm getting a mic soon and hope to start recording as soon as I'm able; PLing seems to have notation rules, and as an written-editor I want to be more familiar with them before I dive in.

We're not just here to hang, we're here to learn and volunteer. Like I said, we know what you're about, looked at your webpages before even considering LV. If we wanted a cafeteria or lounge type of environment, we'd have gone elsewhere.

Y'all are very friendly! I wasn't expecting someone to reply to my personal introduction on that dedicated thread; that's never happened to me before, and I really appreciated that.

(Indeed, dedicated local witches are a must! Glad to have met you so early on )

But yes: we're grabbing 'muffins' and new username info in the event that we want to volunteer together for the same projects, then back to work.

[jedialonza]

@Monica
I plan on both reading and PLing! I think the rest of the Sparklers might plan to be doing one or the other, as they're able.

Yep, SparkNotes is run by B&N now. We're not necessarily Shakespeare folks ("No Fear Shakespeare" is the most recognizable brand, though). Whatever needs doing, really? And there's a lot that needs doing!

Personally, I like reading drama and short works. I've done some staged readings for Jacobean and Restoration era things (Aphra Behn!), which might be less commonly covered. Poetry sets, or translated epic. I read & speak Hebrew, so I might look into what you have floating around in that language--especially Medieval era poetry (which I presume are less represented next to Biblical things). I'm definitely open to reading and PLing beyond these topics, but hey! I'm not here to reread Hamlet for the fifteenth time .
I can't comment for what others are interested in, but no worries, we're not a one-trick pony.

Audiobooks aren't covered by SparkNotes, although I wish they were--it's one thing to translate Shakespeare (and other books) to the vernacular and another to hear them read aloud? I find that even if they're not "translated," older books become a lot more understandable when you have a human voice and emotion speaking the words rather than having scribbly inkings jumping around by their lonesome in your head. Not to mention how valuable audiobooks are to people who are dyslexic or vision-impaired, or, you know, commuting/driving. Audio is an undervalued medium.
But that is, of course, why I'm drawn here. And I wish I'd have come earlier...
Backtracking, yes: it seems that only the community aspect of SparkNotes is shutting down. Accounts are being deleted, past interactive posts are being wiped, and there's really no way to contribute there anymore.

And another witch! Are there three of you? Do you prophesy the fate of Scottish kingdoms?

[ej400]

(I'm still not sure how you excise partial quotes into replies, so I'm going to reply to people in separate comments. Oof.)

In the top right corner, across from someone's forum name, there is a button with a " in it. Hope this helps.

[WiltedScribe]

I read & speak Hebrew, so I might look into what you have floating around in that language--especially Medieval era poetry (which I presume are less represented next to Biblical things).

Hi there!

I wanted to jump in when I saw you speak Hebrew, because there's a project here that is only waiting for a Hebrew reader to come along and finish it off: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72305&hilit=Rubaiyat

It's "The Rubaiayat" of Omar Khayyam, which is roughly in the period you're interested in. I'm sure you've heard of it, since it's a classic work and regularly studied in schools. You might want to start off with smaller things, like short poems or stories, to get used to the technical aspects of recording for us, but if you're truly serious about volunteering here, this would be the perfect thing for you to help us with.

(Of course, the very first thing you need to do is a One-Minute Test. That's a mandatory hurdle you need to clear before you're allowed to claim anything)

[moniaqua]

(I'm still not sure how you excise partial quotes into replies, so I'm going to reply to people in separate comments. Oof.)

The trick on it is, first press the reply-button, then mark the sentence you'd like to quote and then click the " ej400 mentioned from that post where the sentence is in.

We're not necessarily Shakespeare folks

That fits in nicely as so many Shakespear works are already in the catalog

I'm not here to reread Hamlet for the fifteenth time

I agree; I also try pick works that aren't in the catalog yet. They might be elsewhere, but usually not for free.
Altough we indeed seem to have only three versions

Are there three of you?

<lookingaround> One, two, .... one, two, .... d -oups, äh, we are many!

Do you prophesy the fate of Scottish kingdoms?

Na. Can't. There are none left.

[mightyfelix]

Well, if we have a few witches in the community, maybe I can be the Good Fairy? (Or we can play good witch/bad witch?)

I've been lurking in this thread, but wanted to wait a bit before joining in, to see what was happening. I think the initial confusion and misunderstanding on the part of some of us old-timers (actually, am I one? When do you get to call yourself that?) is that so many of you guys suddenly seemed to just show up in this off-topic thread without doing the introductions or 1-minute test, so it looked as if you just wanted to chat without contributing. I can definitely understand why you want to find your friends first. Learning a new forum, and of course the culture of it, can be daunting, so it feels nice to have a "safety net" in your friends before diving in.

But please do rest assured, we're a friendly bunch, and if you need help finding your way around, just ask, and you'll typically get an answer within a few hours.

I look forward to working with you all!

[ej400]

And I do apologize if I might have seemed rude. It wasn't the way I intended it to be. We don't mean to shove you guys away, I guess like mightyfelix said

I think the initial confusion and misunderstanding on the part of some of us old-timers... is that so many of you guys suddenly seemed to just show up in this off-topic thread without doing the introductions or 1-minute test, so it looked as if you just wanted to chat without contributing.

I apologize if this might have seemed like you guys aren't welcome... but you are very welcome, just at first it didn't sound like you were going to contribute. I hope to work with you guys soon, and in the meantime, if you need any help were all here for you.

[IIparrkerrII]

Apologies if I offended you and anyone else, it was really more directed to the people that came from the OT.

But also... hello! I'm Parker, really appreciate you letting us have a little corner of your forum.