RationalWiki talk:Science Text

Obtaining the texts
Where are we getting the texts from? I doubt copy/pasting stuff from Project Gutenberg or wherever would work. And a lot of stuff that gets quote-mined (like Stephen Gould's stuff) is still in copyright. --Kels 18:46, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * According to Project Gutenberg's license:

This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
 * So using their works won't be an issue if we don't try to market it as a PG book. And with stuff that's still in copyright, we can ask politely for at least the quote-mined area to include as part of this. People being able to find and understand the original work that was quote mined can go far in helping them to understand the deceit of the quote mine. --Irrational Atheist 18:50, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * So why not just link to it when necessary? Do we really need to duplicate such projects? Also, all such excerpts could simply be set up as sub-pages of quote mining, if we really want to?  And can get permissions? (Actually, chances are that such presentations would fall under "fair use" - really)  ħ uman  22:11, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * Link to what? To the full text of On the Origin of Species to point out the passage? The purpose of the project will be to break up such long works into sections, and include annotations to simplify the passages for the layman. --Irrational Atheist 22:43, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * And your solution is to load the whole work up here and add headers so the links are easier? Most of this quote mining crap has been covered "out there" (say, at talk origins), and partly, here.  Why not just make it simple and copy what we need, when we need it?  I'm not actually sure what your idea is at this point...  ħ uman  22:55, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * TalkOrigins' archive went down, thus a lot of that information was lost temporarily. The idea is taking popular science texts, breaking them up with sections to be easier to navigate and link to, include annotations and discussions of what the scientific analysis is for laymen, and make sure when quote-miners use only part of a section, that it's pointed out as well.
 * One thing I've found, when searching quotes that a Creationist uses as argument by authority, that searching for the quote brings up dozens of other Creationist sites rather than the substance of the quote. More valid links provides more valid response. --Irrational Atheist 23:38, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * Ouch, that sucks (TO being down). Do we suspect it will be revived?  I see your point on searching, though.  I could see value in storing the most used quote mines with their context, one way or another, though.  Google likes us, and if we store them, that might help on the search thing?  ħ uman  23:57, 24 December 2008 (EST)

Please use the talk page for discussions on these points.
First, you should link the talk page. Second, since this is in the RW namespace, anyone can edit your wonderful idea. You might want to move it to "essay", where you can claim owenership of the "page" and all comments are on the talk page.  ħ uman  22:58, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * This page will probably go when there's enough consensus whether to do it or not. I don't believe it'll be easy, and it'll probably take years just to get up the basic texts and process them just enough to get a good sense of what to do. I just did not want people to radically change the front page to something else. It's not much of an essay. --Irrational Atheist 23:43, 24 December 2008 (EST)
 * Not, it's not. But if you don't want it changed, that's where to put it.  I'm glad you think we'll be working on this for years, that's a very positive note :)  ħ uman  23:58, 24 December 2008 (EST)