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Project:Quality policy: Difference between revisions
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== Introduction == | |||
The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is committed to ensuring the highest possible quality of the texts that are available on our website. | The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is committed to ensuring the highest possible quality of the texts that are available on our website. | ||
Our "mission statement" and practical goal is to make Wittgenstein's texts freely available online – where "freely" means | Our "mission statement" and practical goal is to make Wittgenstein's texts freely available online – where "freely" means {{plainlink|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre both for free and with a free licence]}} – in as many languages as possible. However, we are painfully aware that free content has an inherent potential for very wide reach, to the point that, for example, a free translation may become the default precisely by virtue of being free and regardless of its quality – i.e., potentially despite not being as good as a non-free translation. | ||
Therefore, we take the issue of quality extremely seriously and we strive to guarantee that all our editions of both original texts and translations meet high standards. | |||
It should also be stressed that the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is inspired by the ''ethos'' of online free-culture projects such as the {{plainlink|[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Wikimedia_projects Wikimedia Projects]}}, {{plainlinks|[http://gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg]}} and others. Making a non-paywalled edition available to readers may be more important than guaranteeing that the non-paywalled edition is of higher quality than the paywalled one. Subject to a careful consideration of circumstances, and case-by-case decision-making, we programmatically prefer publishing content that is good instead of not publishing content that is not excellent. | |||
== How we work == | |||
The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project’s scope is more similar to that of a publishing house than to that of an academic journal. | The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project’s scope is more similar to that of a publishing house than to that of an academic journal. | ||
We researched the best practices of publishing houses, we elected to rely heavily on trusted translators, an approach which in turn is grounded in the idea that no number of qualified revisions can make a bad translation into a good one; while of course all translations are proofread (often by more than one person, before and after typesetting), we haven’t been thinking about a true peer-review system, precisely because of the difference between our project’s workings and those of a journal. | |||
In order for you to have a better understanding of our goals, I would also like to make it clear that the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is inspired by the “ethos” of online free-culture projects. We are painfully aware of the risks that free content can bring along, especially, as you say, in terms of bad content becoming the default just because it is free. At the same time, we programmatically prefer publishing content that is good instead of not publishing content that is not excellent. | In order for you to have a better understanding of our goals, I would also like to make it clear that the Ludwig Wittgenstein Project is inspired by the “ethos” of online free-culture projects. We are painfully aware of the risks that free content can bring along, especially, as you say, in terms of bad content becoming the default just because it is free. At the same time, we programmatically prefer publishing content that is good instead of not publishing content that is not excellent. | ||