Talk:First Linguifex Relay

Initial Issues and Cheating

There are some problems I see with this relay. The first is that the text to be translated will be posted on the site, which makes it hard not to cheat. In most conlang relays, a relay-master has the emails of all conlangers involved and acts as an intermediary between the conlangers. Secondly, why have a limited number of spots? We want to encourage participation by as many people as possible, no? Zev (talk) 08:46, 2 September 2013 (CEST)

Aye, I know about the cheating issue. I just figured (perhaps naively) that people wouldn't want to cheat much (I mean, where's the fun?). And I was thinking more of this as a trial run, thus the small number of spots. Just to get it running soon-ish and see how it turns out. This way we'll have some data on issues, turn-out, wiki-usage and can design a larger, more intercommunitarian run later. :) -- Chrysophylax 08:50, 2 September 2013 (CEST)-- Chrysophylax 08:50, 2 September 2013 (CEST)

Yes, but on a wiki this small, it will be hard not to cheat. Just scanning RC could spoil it by accident, and it prohibits people from joining late if they check the text out of curiosity. PS: Restricting the sample size will of course invalidate most reasonable data-driven conclusions you could have drawn, you know.

All this is just my opinion, really, and I'll participate gladly regardless, but these are concerns that I think could hinder the success of the game. Zev (talk) 08:57, 2 September 2013 (CEST)

Yup, but I was thinking more of template/page issues. Also, I would already discourage people from joining "late" as this would leave the whole time issue dangling. Instead, I would rather wait for people to sign-up and then close admissions after some time has passed. Re: PS. Relays rarely go into the insanely large scale so a 7 user data sample shouldn't be too odd for drawing conclusions for a 12 user relay and so on. And about scanning RC, I'm not sure how dangerous it is. For one, you only see the content in the edit note when you create a new page. Furthermore, it's a bit hard to cheat if all you get is a text in another language. At most you get to read someone else's version of it in their conlang. This presumes that we'd ban English re-translations of any sort until after the relay and only allow vocabulary lists, interlinear glosses and relevant grammar info. That way you could cheat but you'd basically be doing double homework. I don't think this sounds too outlandish, n'esr? Chrysophylax 09:18, 2 September 2013 (CEST)

OK, your arguments are pretty reasonable; I can accept that. A minor note: why interlinear glosses instead of vocab lists and grammar notes? Can we choose one method or the other at will? Zev (talk) 06:50, 3 September 2013 (CEST)

Good to hear ^^, and yes, you're allowed both. I will update the text to reflect. I just suggested interlinears as they can be pretty useful :P -- Chrysophylax 11:30, 3 September 2013 (CEST)

Participation

I am not certain I can do this due to uni just started and other projects but I will take a shot at it, I will add Umbrean to it =)  Emperor Zelos 19:38, 3 September 2013 (CEST)

Time Periods

In the next one, can we have like a week instead of just 2 days?  Emperor Zelos 06:14, 11 September 2013 (CEST)

I really liked the fast speed, so I propose that we could just set it according to how the author or the wiki feels; There's definitely benefits to a weekly time limit [more participants, more proof reading hopefully, etc etc] but there's nothing stopping people from running the 48 hour relays in the meantime. I am considering composing a text for one myself shortly which I'd like to see used for a fast relay. -Fauxlosophe (talk) 19:57, 11 September 2013 (CEST)

I'm actually preparing the Second Linguifex Relay, but I suppose we could have individual time limits, right? Let's say most of us go with 2 days, and if someone say they need a week, they'll get it. Granted they speak up before we start, that is. And I intend for it to start sometime next week; Wednesday to Friday. Waahlis 21:16, 11 September 2013 (CEST)

I've just written up what I'd like to see for a third relay. It has a few similar themes to Chrys' but I blame the fact that both example relays were about birds; I wanted to keep with the theme.-Fauxlosophe (talk) 22:52, 11 September 2013 (CEST)