I suppose it will come as no surprise to regulars here that, while I
maintain Babelcarp myself, I get lots of help with the definitions.
(My Chinese is *very* minimal.) When I'm stumped by a bit of Chinese
that seems like a tea term, when Googling it on the Chinese web yields
no context that I'm sure of, there are very few people I tend to ask
for help. (You know who you are!)

Today I opened up the process a bit by posting a web page that shows
some possible Chinese tea terms that currently puzzle me, and solicits
help with those phrases from those who know more than I:

http://www.panix.com/~perin/babelcarp-experts.html

The page lets you type in some help for a phrase. Then you click a
button, and I get your work via email. That's all there is to it.

The Babelcarp Experts' Page, if it turns out to be useful, will be
updated from time to time. Problematic phrases that Babelboffins have
answered will disappear, replaced by new mysteries. (Mysteries to me,
at least.)

By the way, even more than Babelcarp proper, this page really, really
wants your computer to have Chinese fonts installed.

Lew,

Great idea, and thank you for all of your labours with The Carp,
which we have come to love so much.

Particularly in the definitions of wulongs, there are some
definitions that could be expanded upon. Not meaning to add to your
workload, but I wonder if you would consider adding a "Refine this
definition" button, or something, to a definition. This might perhaps
allow users to either add directly to a definition, or to e-mail
("post") you the text. Tea drinkers are notoriously keen to share
their knowledge, and I wonder if you might capitalise upon that by
adding that sort of facility to your page.

Either way, keep up the good work - I for one use your site many
times per week.

Kind regards, and toodlepip,

Hobbes

Lew,

Do we get credit? I don't have anything on my Rosetta Stone for your
first two items. Shi Cang is 'wet warehouse mildew taste'. You don't
need Chinese fonts installed. All you need is know how to work between
the double byte characters set for Chinese and Unicode. I remember a
similar Que Paso for Chinese terms on Wiki somewhere. I think the main
confusion in Chinese is we think we know what it means. How many times
has Danny corrected me here? If were talking about Chinese tea terms I
think flushing them out is appropriate here because a discussion is
sometimes required.

Jim

Lewis Perin wrote:

Lew,

I did have an Rou-Qing entry on my Rosetta Stone. Rou is the term in
oxidation we call bruising (rubbing) which can be done by hand or
machine. I think the Cha and Tian is not required.

Jim

Space Cowboy wrote:

"HobbesOxon" googlemail.com> writes:

Thanks for the kind words!

That's an interesting idea, and it wouldn't be a huge amount of
programming. Maybe Babelcarp could display a form for editing the
preexisting definition when the user clicked "Refine", and the form
would send me email. But I wonder how much it would be used.
(There's an email link on the page as is labeled "Complaints?
Questions?", and *nobody* uses it.)

"Space Cowboy" ix.netcom.com> writes:

On Babelcarp proper, I often make note of my source just as a comment
in the database, not to be displayed on the web page. (I doubt that
real users are interested in this information, usually)

Maybe I'm wrong about this. If users really want to see sources,
please chime in now. (Warning: it would take me a while to accomplish
this, for there are hundreds of definitions with comments on sources,
and it also isn't obvious to me what the best way to display them
would be.)

I've been thinking of having already-answered questions on the
Experts' page hang around for a while before being deleted. I might
put an extra column in the table on the Experts' page so that answered
questions would carry a credit.

Well, Sasha got there first, as it happens. Shi Cang is wet storage
of Pu'er, the opposite of Gan Cang.

Lew,

I just saw what you did for credit. Good idea. Heretofore you could
claim Babelcarp was your own hard work. Now all you have to do is ask
which I know is harder than it seems.

Jim

PS Could you put a date on the query? That way after a couple of days
I could give it my best shot if others haven't.

Lewis Perin wrote:

"Space Cowboy" ix.netcom.com> writes:

Well, it is, mostly: most of the definitions were researched my me.

To me it's a pleasure, actually. I've been gratified by how fast the
first several questions have been answered.

I suppose I could, but I don't understand why it matters. Are you
saying that questions, like Pu'er, improve with age, only faster?

/Lew

I like the ones which will apparently stump the experts.

Jim

PS I don't know. How about an accepted/rejected(why?) notification by
email for the entries.

Lewis Perin wrote:

"Space Cowboy" ix.netcom.com> writes:

That doesn't seem like much to ask!

/Lew