________  ________  ________
   2017-07-10                                   /        \/        \/    /   \
                                               /       __/         /_       _/
   Just   a   few   thoughts  and  notes  on  /        _/         /         /
Otarchive, to keep the phlog rolling.         \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
                                                /        \/        \/    /   \
   Actually, before that  a  meta  post; I'm   /        _/         /_       _/
thinking about changing the structure of the  /-        /        _/         /
phlog files to gophermaps in  subdirectories  \________/\________/\___/____/
for each  entry, it'd be  clumsy  but  would
give  me a way  to  hyperlink references and  add reference files to  a  post.
Thoughts?  Too  hard?  In opposition to the  Gopher simplicity? Answers on the
back of a postcard to...

   Also I still can't get extended ASCII characters to work consistently but I
think that's just the way things are and not something I'm doing.

   Anyway, the Otarchive. I use Salesforce to  track the library  because it's
what I do professionally  so keeps me sharp and gives me a focussed playground
to  test ideas with a purpose. It's one thing to have a sandbox and be able to
do whatever you like but it's  another  to have  a  sandbox and be able  to do
whatever you like with a specific  end goal, I suppose. I've migrated the data
from our old org to a new one because more space and more widgets and it's got
me re-thinking  some decisions  I'd made previously, such  as  separating  out
physical items and digital items and all this weird magic happening with dates
and titles.  It was  super  rad,  don't get  me wrong, but  it was also pretty
unnecessary. In re-working  the library's progress it's really bubbled  to the
surface how much  work  I  need  to do  on the  project rather than around the
project. I spend  too much time  documenting the documents and not enough time
actually scanning what I've got  and uploading what I've scanned. Maybe  I can
work into the  new  Salesforce stuff some kind  of  task structure to prod  me
incessantly to scan junk. I think I struggle a bit with the scanning  side  of
things because it's such a chore right now without my own scanner.

   Which  is  the second thought I've  been bouncing around in my head;  maybe
starting a Patreon  or similar to  fund the  project.  This is pretty unlikely
because  crowd funding and  I  go  together  like oil and water  but this is a
costly endeavor and I could use the help. But  the  burr in  it for me  is, ok
patrons fund me and I get a nice scanner so I don't  need to use  the ones  at
work and I have a nice project-dedicated account to purchase zines as they pop
up but then I get the zines, right, I scan them and upload them, then who owns
them? Currently, at the  end  of the day the project and it's library is mine,
if I get desperate and have to sell it or if I lose interest and pass it on to
the State Library no  one can tell me otherwise, but  if it's  funded by other
people it'll never be  fully mine and the  project  will stop being my project
FOR other people, it'll be my responsibility TO other people.  Right?  I don't
know.

   Like I said, though,  it's something I've been  twisting around but  pretty
unlikely  to  follow  through with.  Fuck it. That kind of "support  my hobby"
crowdfunding always leaves a sour taste in my mouth, the only donations I want
is material  to  grow the  library and  I  don't  think  Patreon  accepts  old
convention fliers.

   The  Patreon stuff lead me to the last thought, it  was something that came
up  while  I  was rolling around  ideas for "rewards". The obvious  stuff  was
getting a look at  this or that before it's  thrown  on the  Internet Archive,
having a say  in  what gets scanned as a priority, etc. Maybe at a higher tier
you could get purchase rights to  stuff from  the library, in case there was a
zine or  whatever you wanted that  we  had, after it'd been  scanned you could
offer to buy  it.  That idea  gave me  pause,  wondering about  the  project's
endgame. If  the goal is to digitise and distribute  this stuff to preserve it
for everyone then does the project library need that physical copy? On-selling
items  after  they're  scanned seems  like a  way to keep  it  rolling  along,
reducing the overall cost.

   I do like having them around, though.

   The reward  that I thought was most interesting though was a quarterly zine
of my own,  a zine for  the project  backers.  A  regular update on  what  the
project is doing, what's new in the library and what's been scanned and what's
up  next,  as  well as  a  couple of highlight  articles republished  from the
project zines themselves. Patreon or no this  seems like it'd be something fun
to do just for the sake of it.



EOF