- of the scanned page cannot be accurately reproduced for some other reason.[1]
- Gray (“Unnecessary to Proofread”): Signifies that the corresponding page either is blank, or contains some content other than text (for example, an image or illustration).[2]
- White (“Empty Page”): Signifies that, although the linked page includes a scanned image of the original source, no corresponding text of any kind exists yet on Wikisource. The site offers easy ways for users to fill in empty pages (generally upgrading the corresponding link from “Empty” to “Not Proofread” in the process), either by extracting text embedded in the image file, or by running an on-site OCR tool on the image.[3]
The volume index page for a given work available for proofreading on Wikisource thus can appear, at any given moment, as an information-rich (and colorful) mosaic, instantly reflecting the validation level of each page included within that volume.[4]
Clicking on any of the individual page links from the Index page opens a page-level view where proofing and correction of the text actually occurs.[5] In an improvement over the Distributed Proofreaders interface, Wikisource displays the extracted text and the corresponding scanned page image side by side.[6] Clicking on the “Edit” tab at the top of the page displays a scrolling text box side-by-side with the scanned image of the page.[7] Users may enter any necessary corrections in the text window and update the contents of the page by clicking the “Save” button. If the user indicates a change in the page’s overall proofreading level (by clicking an adjacent radio button for whichever color coding is appropriate), the color of the
- ↑ See Help:Page Status, supra note 126.
- ↑ See id.
- ↑ See id. The availability of “Empty” pages on the site—for which an image, but no corresponding text, exists—explains why the existing Page statistics understate the true dimensions of Wikisource. See supra note 122.
- ↑ See Figure 2, infra, at 32. The site’s architecture thus gives the proofreading process some aspects of a rudimentary video game, with users’ proofreading activities yielding progressive “rewards” in the form of perceptible changes in the appearance of the work’s index page. This feature is, if nothing else, an ingenious way of encouraging sustained user involvement, even if the makers of World of Warcraft or other actual video games probably have little to fear from the competition posed by Wikisource.
- ↑ See Figure 3, infra, at 33.
- ↑ See id.
- ↑ See Figure 4, infra, at 34. Depending on the resolution of the scanned source image, the user may “zoom in” for a closer view of the image to ease proofreading of small text.
