A VC - Latest Comments in The Editor Dilemma

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:54:17 -0000

Ok, I'll give it a shot

Not sure why the badge says "grade it" when I am looking for a copy editing
solution

Re: The Editor Dilemma

jbpounders — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:28:29 -0000

Hi Fred,
Here's how it's done:
1) Login/Register.
2) Click "Add My Site" in the top right.
3) Fill in the necessary info to add your site to gooseGrade.
4) Click the green "Add to Typepad" button under the Automated Install section.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:39:45 -0000

I have a typepad hosted blog

I can't figure out how to add goose grade to it

I just spent five minutes on goosegrade.com and am scratchting my head

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:29:22 -0000

When did that change?

Re: The Editor Dilemma

John Brooks Pounders — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:43:12 -0000

Hi Fred,
gooseGrade works on all webpages/blogs. Signup->Add your site-> copy your code into your template. Our wordpress plugin is based off our API that is coming soon. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help you setup gG on your blog.

Cheers,
John Brooks Pounders
gooseGrade CEO

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 12:23:12 -0000

What do you think about opening up my posts (wikipedia style) for basic copy editing?

Re: The Editor Dilemma

im2b_dl — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:10:01 -0000

As a screenwriter/filmmaker who has about 15 years of challenges with editors,
"studio/network development ladder climbers",
critics,
friends and family members offended by the content,
state politicos who have asked for content to be filmed in their state only to ask us to change it after
producers who want it shorter
actors who want it longer
other writers who want it written their way
editors who lose sight of the art for grammar..

or lose site of the grammar for art...
either rely on basic computerized grammatical editing tools and don't worry about the nitpickers... whether they be right or not...

or make sure to pick a person who focuses on grammar but whom you can talk to face to face. Trust is essential in an editor no matter what you are doing.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:13:10 -0000

Yes, this is what I am looking for but right now GooseGrade only works on
wordpress blogs

Re: The Editor Dilemma

John Brooks Pounders — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:16:22 -0000

We're reading this thread. Look for all of these things in the coming weeks! Which blog script are you using?
Thanks,
John Brooks Pounders
CEO of gooseGrade.com

Re: The Editor Dilemma

John Brooks Pounders — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:53:49 -0000

fnazeeri, We're so excited that you like our product! We're striving to meet as many needs as we can and you should be expecting a lot from us very very soon :)

-JBP
CEO of gooseGrade.com
jbpounders@gmail.com -- jbpounders@goosegrade.com -- get in touch if you have anything you want to discuss.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

slowblogger — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:49:28 -0000

Yes, I will.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:38:13 -0000

If you ever do launch it, pls let me beta test it here at avc

Re: The Editor Dilemma

slowblogger — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:31:03 -0000

I call this crowd editing. In 2006 and 2007, I looked for something very similar (if not identical) to what you are looking for. I tried all kinds of Wiki, blog, CMS, but none solved the problem. So I decided to create something related, and it became Paragraphr. But we only got to a very early (yet open) version and became too busy with another project. So we stopped it. (But we might be able to show you if you want.)

But this is still one of the top 3 future projects of mine. I am very happy that Fred Wilson is interested in this, too.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:38:15 -0000

I think the patch to an open-source project is a great analogy

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Sam Foster — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:17:11 -0000

Conceptually the idea of audience-powered edits is just like submitting a patch to an open-source project. You need a simple UI for creating and adding the patch, a way to review the patch - preferably in context - and apply it if it meets approval. Implicit in this is the ability to keep versions of posts. In this case UI is everything: if the user experience is good, its a valuable feature. Otherwise it impedes the normal flow and is worse than useless. Word's Track Changes is a passable stab at the problem, but that too suffers from the problem of visual noise if there's lots of changes. It does a pretty good job of flagging what got changed though.

In the context of a blog post you want the patch creation to be transparent - the reader/copy-editor just sees a simple text editor. The patch would be attached to a comment, and you'd click to see it applied to the original. As owner you'd be able to apply it, others might be able to thumbs up/down.

Potential problems might be: it would get a bit gnarly if you use rich text (then a simple text diff might not be very enlightening), but that's an edge case. And trolls: reviewing bogus/deliberate mis-edits could get time-consuming, and you'd really need the digg-like vote up/down to mitigate that.

That said, it seems an entirely practical idea to me, and just wants implementing for the various blogging engines. I think it needs to be fully integrated at that level - e.g. a wordpress plugin, rather than a browser plugin / external service.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

editowl — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:22:12 -0000

Fred, your post and the comments really got me thinking.

I just wrote a post on my blog exploring (very tentatively) the idea of audience-powered editing. Being an editor myself, I focus not on the technical challenges, but rather than on its editorial implications and how it can affect the publishing process.

Anyway, it’s there if you or any of your readers are interested: editowl.com/blog/can-editing-be-audience-powered.

Cheers,
Andrew

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Megan — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:39:11 -0000

When you develop the crowd sourcing blog copy editor, please contact Blogmaverick about joining the beta program. Mark Cuban needs this. Badly.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:09:08 -0000

Ha! That's exactly my point. He's original and worthy of reading but his copy could use some work

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:03:08 -0000

Thanks. That's very helpful. You should know that most of my posts are written in less than 20 mins. Maybe that's why they need editing!!!

Re: The Editor Dilemma

editowl — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:02:12 -0000

Re: your point about "How will [an editor] know what I really want to convey?" You could say the same of your readers. That is, if an editor doesn't know, how will they? An editor simply stands in for the audience and makes sure that what you want to convey is conveyed.

Also, you may underestimate how quickly editors and proofreaders can work. I run an editing business for online news and blogs and would probably spend about 20 minutes editing this post. Granted, that's probably 20 minutes longer than you care to wait, but for some authors it's a fair trade-off.

But I agree with one of the major threads running through the comments here: if your meaning is clear, it ain't broke. Your blog isn't the kind that begs for editing. But there are many types of blogs out there, and some of them depend (partly) on polished grammar for credibility.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

fredwilson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:02:12 -0000

Agreed

What I meant is that for every writer, there are hundreds or maybe thousands
of readers

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Anon — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:44:09 -0000

A colleague and I spent a half-hour discussing a few sentences you wrote in a recent post:

"Of course mobile reading is a bigger deal because for every writer, there are tens or hundreds or thousands of readers. Writing is still something not everyone is predisposed to do. But reading is something everyone does." http://www.avc.com/a_vc/200...

I read that statement as "for every writer, there are POTENTIALLY tens or hundreds or thousands of readers". And also, that you are not implying that (some, many, whatever) readers are not also writers. In fact, I felt you are not saying anything about the ratio of readers to writers. What you are saying is that everyone reads a lot more than they write!

However, my colleague interpreted your meaning to be that there are many, many more online writers than readers.

I don't believe the latter is true, given a variety of input, including the PEW reports that claim most internet users are also content creators of some sort (and a high percentage, generally depending on age range, are bloggers themselves e.g. teenagers: 28% have created their own online journal or blog).

So, here's a place where an editor could possibly have helped -- by making these sentences clearer.

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Sylvia — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:58:40 -0000

I have a solution! A solution that combines humans with technology, thus it can differentiate between grammatical errors and content alterations. There is absolutely no need for someone to come through and change the content or meaning of your words. I agree: that would be overstepping a reader's boundaries. As you have observed, however, it would be worthwhile to have someone come through and edit for punctuation, spelling, and other grammatical errors.

My suggestion = www.spinspotter.com. There are people to contact on the home page, and they can set you up with an appropriate editor(s). It would look much like the editing already taken place on this page (if you download Spinoculars at Spinspotter, it will become clear).

I hope to work with you in the future. :-)

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Penelope Trunk — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:26:58 -0000

Hi, Fred. Four people sent this post to me because I talk all the time about how I have an editor for my blog.

I think your post could have been cut to half the length that it is. Which an editor would have done for you. For me, the reason for a blog editor is to respect my readers' time.

That said, I'm still a fan of your blog :)

Penelope

Re: The Editor Dilemma

Todd Herman — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:10:53 -0000

Mr. Wilson -

You asked, Sir, and you have been answered: http://spinspotter.com/arti...

While our tool is not mean for this -it is meant to "crowd-edit" the spin and inaccuracies out of new- this will give you a good example of how it works. I am not a grammar expert as you shall see but, I did have fun in the guise of a nit picky editor. Based on my personal experiences with editors, I also performed one of their most egregious, rude and, sadly, common errors---take a look at the extract and, see if you find it as unforgivable as I do!

If you would like to see how that changes appear on your blog, please simply add Spinoculars to your Firefox browser: http://spinspotter.com/down.... When you have Spinoculars, visit your post.

For Mr. Wilson's readers: please feel free to augment my additions to the article---and, please, vote down or edit my rude pseudo-error. You can all vote them up or down without the Toolbar at http://spinspotter.com/arti... or, you can create your own edits to Mr. Wilson's piece on his own page with our toolbar.

Thanks,

Todd