The Grand Library of Kiwi Farms Meta Discussion

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This is a thread for all meta discussion relating to "The Grand Library of Kiwi Farms," a collection of archived public domain texts.

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/the-grand-library-of-kiwi-farms.189802

The thread follows very rigid rules and guidelines which does not allow any discussion, so this thread is meant to offer a means of commenting on any archived books without disrupting the original thread.

 

[Historical Strelkov]

There's gotta be a better way to do this.

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

There's gotta be a better way to do this.

Do you have a better suggestion? Not trying to be a jerk, I'm asking sincerely.

 

[JJLiautaud]

This is a book mocking the Chinese dialect during the colonial period in China, where various European powers, alongside America and Japan, carved up China for themselves. Though racist in a way that would impress /pol/, it is worthy of preservation. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

This isn't mocking the dialect its describing Pidgin which was a real thing.

 

[GenociderSyo]

1. The work archived must be in the public domain. No copyrighted books. This is not a piracy thread.

Do copies of the original dsm count? I found it ONCE long ago, but have no idea if that is public domain yet or if it just gets renewed every time a new one gets put out.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Do copies of the original dsm count? I found it ONCE long ago, but have no idea if that is public domain yet or if it just gets renewed every time a new one gets put out.

I think the law is life + 75 years OR 90 years post-publication.
I've got a copy of the DSM-V, though obviously can't upload it here.

 

[Morrowind: GOTY Edition]

I can only imagine Josh's horror as he watches his server costs skyrocket because Kiwis started archiving an entire library of books and films on his forum.

 

[mindlessobserver]

I can only imagine Josh's horror as he watches his server costs skyrocket because Kiwis started archiving an entire library of books and films on his forum.

Most of these book PDFs have smaller file sizes then autistic videos that get posted everywhere.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

Most of these book PDFs have smaller file sizes then autistic videos that get posted everywhere.

Do you know of a way to compress PDF files so they can be uploaded? I have the PDF copies of Great Books of the Western World (1952 edition), but they're too large to be uploaded here.

 

[suspended animation]

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror

downloaded 04/21/2024

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B079WMRRYV
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (October 2, 2014 )
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 2, 2018

In Thomas Ligotti's first nonfiction outing, an examination of the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life through an insightful, unsparing argument that proves the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination but instead are found in reality.

That's a recent book and doesn't fall under Public Domain. I don't think any of Ligotti's work does unfortunately.

This gov website shows who owns copyright for books from 1978 to present.

 

[Historical Strelkov]

Do you have a better suggestion? Not trying to be a jerk, I'm asking sincerely.

Maybe a wiki style site. The problem is forums are not great ways of organizing a repository or library.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

Hey, we've got a meta thread! Go us!

 

[mindlessobserver]

@mindlessobserver What a lovely idea. I have a question - what's The Library's stance on works with unclear copyright status, namely a book that was public domain for years but then copyrighted again retroactively by a new law (which shouldn't be possible, given the general law rules

I would say make sure there is no copyright. The laws are retarded, but dear sneeder is already fighting two retarded copyright lawsuits and does not need a third. If it's unclear it never hurts too ask

 

[Pomniman]

Maybe a wiki style site. The problem is forums are not great ways of organizing a repository or library.

Yeah, realistically I don't see someone digging through a forum for this kind of stuff. A separate site formatted more like libgen or project gutenberg would make more sense if you just wanted redundancy for public domain things from other sources. The idea of just reuploading things at random into a forum thread is too clunky to be useful.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Yeah, realistically I don't see someone digging through a forum for this kind of stuff. A separate site formatted more like libgen or project gutenberg would make more sense if you just wanted redundancy for public domain things from other sources. The idea of just reuploading things at random into a forum thread is too clunky to be useful.

So long as discussion is kept in this thread and strict formatting is kept in the other it should work fine. If someone searches the thread for a specific title using the forums search function it will be the first option. If they want to search by a specific author the search function will show all posts referencing that author. The title description block can likewise bring up more general options like "world War 1" or "Adventure" when searched.

If someone is just browsing, the "jump to next highlight" button will show titles the community thinks are really good. Or they could just jump to a random page and scroll around. I also snagged the first 4 replies, so I could also use them to create curated lists of books if things get really big to make it even easier to get around the thread.

These are all things a wiki does anyway. It would just require staying on top of the other thread to prevent it getting messed up with duplicate uploads and off topic sperging so the forums search tool returns useful results

I could add instructions in the OP that shows how to use the Forums "Advanced Search" feature for people unfamiliar with it.

 

[#FF0000]

How would I upload a book I own that doesn't have a PDF version online? I haven't tried doing something like this so it might be fun.
Unless we're only looking for public domain stuff, in which case I probably can't do much there.

 

[Anti Snigger]

Make sure to upload copies in different resolutions to accomodate different devices

 

[Runch]

Do we expect Project Gutenberg to go down anytime soon? I guess I'm aware of the value of rehosting things to be absolutely sure that archives exist, it just feels odd to me that we'll essentially have a local copy of a curated selection of stuff mostly from there. Like I could/would just pop over there every day and grab a new thing for the thread.

Are you focusing very specifically on public domain because it's unquestionably legal to post here, as opposed to creative commons/"I abandon and renounce my copyright" declarations, where there are some arguments that such works could potentially be reclaimed by their owners (i.e. it's just never been tested and could cause issues)? because creative commons would allow for a lot more relevant and modern creations, like the Dungeons & Dragons 5.1e SRD, etc.

Is it worth noting somewhere that trade dress/presentation of a public domain work could still get us in trouble, like book covers and artwork that were added to a public domain work when it was sold as an ebook or whatever?

 

[Anti Snigger]

Project Guntenberg

FTFY, this needs to be the name we use

 

[mindlessobserver]

I doubt there is any danger of Project Gutenberg going down. But who knows how things will go in the future. Rehosting stuff is in and of itself a useful virtue to maintaining the sum total of knowledge. The idea that we should rely on just one thing is what creates single points of failure. If bad actors feel they actually CAN delete problematic things (to them) from the internet, they will. Having multiple layers of redundancy helps deter such actions.

Plus I feel there is utility in the Farms having a repository of stuff that it's users think is interesting or useful to them in particular. It will also help discussions around the forums because it would create a quick reference link that would not necessitate leaving the website.