Mongoose's Reputation for poor Editing

[CordwainerFish]

Sometimes they make a real difference in clarity.

"This book is dedicated to my parents, God and Ayn Rand."

 

[Sigtrygg]

Someone has been to wikipedia

 

[Peleliu]

I am still hoping PDFs can be released with dated version numbers somewhere on the title/credits page.

 

[Condottiere]

Don't worry, Ayn wasn't a Virgin.

 

[MongooseBella]

Why remove them? Using them is one of the lessons one of my favorite people, Kevin J. Anderson, drilled into my little writing head. (Notice, folks, I said, favorite person, not favorite writer - sorry, Kevin, if you're lurking here somewhere.)

I keep them if they help with clarity

 

[Surge]

I am still hoping PDFs can be released with dated version numbers somewhere on the title/credits page.

This 100% should be a thing. It's crazy none of the products are dated.

 

[agentwigggles]

I think part of the issue at hand, is rpg books require very detailed, repeated reads. And a lot of us, are trying to internalize the information to actually use them.
So errors pop out.
Something that has always confused with these complaints, is that we never see raw manuscripts, (and probably shouldnt ever) to what first submitted drafts is or how many drafts each manuscripts goes through. Though I think for some folks, any number given on the number of drafts, it wouldnt be enough. We cant conceptulize how much work was done from when it was first turned into, to what was released.
Something else that always confused me, is that errors that jump out to you readily, are assumed to be errors that jump out to everyone readily. Eg, 'if i spotted them, then they're ignoring them or arent placing effort into them'. Thats never made sense to me.
Error rate would be interesting to have stats on. That feels something that something like Ennie Awards could do. Wouldnt be a whole census of the rpg industry but it would be a lot of them. Not not even have a award for it. Just a stat. Industry Mean, Median per page, per word.

 

[MongooseMatt]

This 100% should be a thing. It's crazy none of the products are dated.

We have indeed started doing that whenever we update a PDF!

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

We have indeed started doing that whenever we update a PDF!

Could you place it on the cover?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Let me look into that...

 

[CordwainerFish]

The indicia page would be more appropriate (and likely easier).

 

[PeterDebney]

People have called me dense and challenging. People have also said I hang out in trees. (Yes, I know that's not what he said).
WBH is pretty dense, though. That's what I wanted and I hope that's what other people wanted. Best to chew thoroughly before swallowing.

As for errors, Chris is a particularly clean writer. Me not so much, so I'm sure I'm a pain to edit, what with my OverCapitalisation, Long sentences, and Passive-Aggressive insistence on the Oxford Comma (hey, Oxford is in England, right? So why not.)

Passive-Aggressive insistence on the Oxford Comma: we are very alike.
Unfortunately my editor insisted on taking them all out unless they actually changed the meaning. I can only assume that he was trying to save on ink!