legamus.eu
Audiobooks of public domain texts in life+70 countries
http://legamus.eu/forum/
http://legamus.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=149
Posted: Tue 31. May 2011, 00:52
I have plenty of ideas flirring around in my head, and I try to put them into a reasonable order That leads me to the question: Do you all agree on the domain name "legamus.eu" ? It happens to be the URL we're on right now, but I don't want to force that on you, it's only an offer! There was also talk of "librivox.eu" being available - to me, it looked like there was a consensus not to take the LibriVox name. But if there isn't a consensus, now is the right time to discuss it
If you do like "legamus.eu", the question is what to do with my former German site (which also lists podcasts and (self-written) texts under Creative Commons licenses). There's not too much of a community, so I don't mind changing the name. I wonder whether I find a subdomain of "legamus.eu" for the German site that is sufficiently "separate" from the main name ("de.legamus.eu" is obviously too close), or would you prefer to keep "legamus.eu" completely for our project? I don't have a strong opinion on this, so please be honest. (Actually, please be honest even if I had a strong opinion on it )
Re: Domain name
by kattekliek
A Dutch LV-user owns the registration of librivox.eu . But I think it could lead to legal problems if we use that name. I really like the domain legamus.eu However, I suggest we change the subtitle; I wrote about that earlier: "about the subtitle of legamus.eu: "Let's read together" does explain the domain name, but to me it sounds more like a reading club than a volunteer project on making audiobooks ... Perhaps something like: "Let's read! Releasing public domain books as free audio." would be better?" Do you like this proposal? Or are there any other proposals?
If the European/death + 70 countries PD-audiobook-thing will get big(ger), I think it's a good idea to move the German branche with non PD-texts to a different domain name. But you are the owner of the name, so I think the final decision is yours!
Posted: Wed 1. Jun 2011, 14:18
by Hokuspokus
I like the name Legamus! I'm all in favour to keep it.
The old part of the forum doesn't disturb me at all. It might course problems one day, but until then only move it, when you want to.
Re: let's read together=book club
Well, yes, a bit. But once there are some Legamus! recordings out there, people will know what is meant.
Of course we need some more explication on the front page of the catalog to come. But as title and motto, less is more.
Hokuspokus wrote: Re: let's read together=book club
Yes, we need content! I ordered a book today that (as Dutch translation) was published in 1923; this is my first project in mind for legamus.eu
True! I think also my proposal is too long. But then perhaps take the 'together' away and stick to 'let's read!' (which is a litteral translation of the Latin)? It takes a bit of the 'book club' feeling away according to me. And it's even shorter
Funny, I thought it would be the other way round: "Let's read" sounded too much like a reading club to me (reading silently), so I added the "together".
And like Hokuspokus, I suggest some explanation on the front (=catalogue?) page - which will be legamus.eu or http://www.legamus.eu, of course - and keeping the forum image just as a kind of logo.
By the way, if I was a bit silent in the last days and will continue to be so for a few days to come, that's because the announced family member has arrived
Posted: Thu 2. Jun 2011, 07:13
Viktor wrote: By the way, if I was a bit silent in the last days and will continue to be so for a few days to come, that's because the announced family member has arrived
Hurray! Congratulations and best wishes!
by neckertb
I also like legamus
kattekliek wrote:
I have plans to record the Phantom of the Opera (published 1924) as soon as I'm done with one of my two solos.
I missed that, congrats
Whoohooooh! Great, congratulations!
by Carl Manchester
Congratulations Viktor.
I like the name Legamus, although I'm not sure I agree that LibriVox.eu is problematic - it mirrors what Project Gutenberg do, after all.
One thing I would say - and I have to admit my Latin is not great, so I may be mistaken - is that "legamus" can mean "I read", but it can also mean "I steal". Which would sort of be the last thing we would want to be saying. On the other hand, I doubt that will be widely noticed.
Hey, look at that, the community is getting bigger
Welcome Carl!
Posted: Fri 3. Jun 2011, 00:11
by Cori
I'm happy with Legamus or LibriVox.eu.
Re. the subtitle / motto / mission statement / tagline ... something that translates well would be nice (I know, difficult to arrange.) Some other ideas:
Giving books voices
Recording books for the public domain
Free audiobooks, by volunteers, for you
We make free audiobooks. Join us!
Hi Cori, nice to get more and more users over here!
Carl Manchester wrote: One thing I would say - and I have to admit my Latin is not great, so I may be mistaken - is that "legamus" can mean "I read", but it can also mean "I steal". Which would sort of be the last thing we would want to be saying. On the other hand, I doubt that will be widely noticed.
Mmm, 'lego' indeed means (also) 'to steal' ('legamus' is 1st person plural, 'we'), but I'm not sure how common that is: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lego#Latin It also means to read aloud, which is exactly what we do. I still prefer legamus.eu, allthough we might have to proof the PD-status of the books we are reading extra thouroughly with such a name
by Leni
I very much like the name legamus. Legamus means "let's read" (and not "we read", which would be "legimus"). Of course, the root originally meant "to pick, to gather, to collect, to harvest", so it could be used with the meaning of "taking, taking away, taking away without permission" (which would turn "legamus" into "let's steal", which is worse than "we steal", I think - we are not only doing it but inviting people to do it! ). But in my fairly large experience with the Latin language, I don't remember an instance of Classical use with this meaning. I had to check the dictionary here, and it gives examples, of course, but even says "not in Cicero" for this meaning. I can guarantee that's not the first (or second, or third) meaning that will spring up in anyone's mind.
In short: I don't think we should worry about it, and I think the name is great.
Agreed though with the book-club thing. Maybe "Let's read out loud!"?
by Guero
Although I never studied latin, Spanish is one of my native languages. When I saw Legamus, I immediately thought it meant "Let's read". So, just confirmation that speakers of latin-based languages will more than likely understand it the way it is meant here.
by ExEmGe
Guero wrote: speakers of latin-based languages will more than likely understand it they way it is meant here.
Possibly. But as a non (or at best very bad) latinist I assumed, until I read the explanation that it was some sort of European lawyers site. Not only that but having looked at the site initially I forgot to bookmark it and, wanting to return, couldn't recognise it in my history list and had to go back to the Librivox site to find out what it was called.
Not that I think it matters much. I can't remember now how I originally found Librivox but it certainly wasn't from the domain name. We need some advertising so I suggest that those who commonly post in Librivox (which is everybody at the moment) add it to their sig.
p.s. And could the index page be a little more multi-lingual please?
The site just got extended from Viktor's existing site, which was in German. It will become multilingual as we grow
As for the name, true, it has some lawyer-like connotation to it. That was also my first thought until I read the explanation
Ah, I understand. I was speaking to the "let's steal" interpretation. I was just pointing out that it never would have crossed my mind to think it meant that.
As for LibriVox...I definitely didn't find it because of its name. I found it because I did a search for "free audio books" and there was LibriVox. Once finding it I understood what the name meant. But it wasn't what brought me to the site. I think the same would go for this site. If someone is looking for free audio books, they'll do a search for the terms, not the name. As long as they will be able to find this site by looking for those or similar terms, people will come here.
Posted: Sun 5. Jun 2011, 05:17
by bart
I like the name Legamus but still I'm in favor of LibriVox.eu.
The reason is simple: for people who know LibriVox it's immediately clear what we stand for.
That gives us a better start than if we would start from scratch.
And there are no legal problems. Gutenberg has proven that.
Welcome Bart!
I've PMed Hugh about using the name last week but haven't heard back. He's very busy at the moment. Will PM him again when the chances are better.