Update and request

[Gil R.]

Last night I added to the commanders.txt files all of the bios I've recently finished with, another dozen or so. We're about to release a new version of the beta patch and it will have these. Assuming that the patch works fine, it will be released as the "gold" patch, so all additional bios I finish with will be for the next patch.

I have a request that would help tremendously with expediting the project. Right now, when I edit bios about 80% of the time it takes involves adding basic explanatory material, much of which I have to take the time to look up. A typical bio of, say, 3500 words will have a few minor typos and a few sentences that can be rewritten to make them flow better, and could be completely edited in about 10-15 minutes, if not for one recurring problem: I usually have to spend another hour or so on the stuff that needs to be added for the benefit of most readers, who don't know every last fact about the Civil War. Some examples of what I mean:

* Every time mention is made of the Peninsula Campaign, I need to add that it began in March 1862, that it was an attempt to take Richmond by landing amphibiously on the Virginia Peninsula, and/or some other basic piece of information -- all of which takes time. Same goes for First Bull Run, which I usually need to identify as the first major battle of the war, a decisive Confederate victory, etc. Same goes for Vicksburg, the strategic importance of which is often omitted. And so on.
* When less famous battles, campaigns and expeditions are mentioned, I need to spend time reading up on them to refresh my memory, so that I don't write something incorrect. The other day, for example, I had to read up on the Camden Expedition so that I could describe it. If a general's most important moment in the war came at some obscure battle, it's important to say something about that battle -- and 95% of the time this requires me to spend time getting up to speed on it.
* Too often, the significance of significant battles -- or else some other important piece of information about that battle (such as who won) that is relevant to the narrative -- is omitted. This is also true for such key parts of famous battles as Pickett's Charge, Horseshoe Ridge, the Hornet's Nest, etc. If a bio says that a general attacked the Hornet's Nest, I usually end up having to explain what that was.
* While I do not believe that dates should be provided for every single battle, the reader needs to have a sense of the chronology involved, so I often end up having to insert dates, many of which I need to look up. (My preference, instead of just spitting out dates, is to give the reader a sense of time like this: "Though he performed heroically at Second Bull Run on August 29, 1862, just nineteen days later Gen. X made a tactical blunder at Antietam that led him and half of his men to be shot and wounded. He didn't return to action until the Battle of Fredericksburg that December." The date of Fredericksburg isn't that important, so long as the reader knows that the general was recuperating from mid-September until December.)

Just one or two additions don't take me that long, but in a typical bio of 3500 characters there might be a whole bunch, and this can double, triple, even quintuple the amount of time I need to finish getting a bio ready -- which is part of the reason that there are about 150 or so that I haven't gotten to yet.

So, back to my request. I'm wondering whether you guys wouldn't mind taking the time to go over bios that you have submitted but are not yet edited and look for such things, and make the necessary changes. Since this patch has all the bios it's going to have, we're not in a hurry to produce new bios, so it would be better to ensure that the ones we do have can be prepared more quickly for the next patch. And this really would make a great difference, allowing me to get through them much more quickly. (Please note that there are about a dozen bios I've partly edited, which should not be looked at again until I'm done with them. Unfortunately, I'm not on my laptop right now, so I can't post the list. I'll do so later.)

Thanks!

[Gil R.]

Okay, I’m on my laptop now. These are the guys whose bios I’ve already read through once and made changes to, so they should be avoided: Dietzler, Pope, Stone, Pike, F. Lee, Toombs, A.S. Johnston, Loring, J.C. Brown, Rosecrans, Salm-Salm, W.F. Smith.

By the way, it occurs to me that some of you who aren’t involved as bio writers might want to help. If you’re reading a bio and see that some explanatory information was left out, feel free to copy the bio and make an addition in boldface. This would definitely be a help.