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[themaheri]

     Hey, I'm in need of a bit-o-help.  A few weeks ago I started doing free editorial and proofreading work for school kids, college kids, and adult kids.  All was well for a time but, alas, now the site owner is interested in pinching a penny from the poor kid's pockets... kids' pockets... no no, the kids have their own pockets so it must be... never-mind.  So, in the spirit of altruism, humanitarian work, and impressing hippie chicks... I would like your help finding a site where I can actually help people without taking their money. 

Thanks,
Me

[Zrk2]

Not sure if spambot, or actually wants to help...

[themaheri]

Sorry, I hadn't used my old DF account for a few years so I eventually lost it. 

I have had almost no luck finding anything.  The old site I used was Kib_in (I'm using a the '_' so that this post doesn't pop-up in google search).  Recently they have begun to move from free rough proofreads to actual commissions... utilizing free editors.  The hell kind'a business plan is that?  A good one if you can con a few editors into it.

I'm serious.  On the other hand, if I can't find a free proofreading service, how is a high school student/foreigner going to locate one?  Any thoughts?

...And sorry for trying to be funny.

[Maher]

Jackpot!  I didn't think my old account existed.  Never really did much outside of the modding forum... just proving I'm not some completely random guy from the internet.

Thanks,
Me

[lordcooper]

Maybe it would be worthwhile going straight to the students?  www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forums.php might be a good place to offer your services to people who may not even be aware that such a thing is on offer.  I'm sure other countries have similar websites if you'd prefer to work with folks from elsewhere.

It's always great to see someone offering help for the sake of it.  Keep it up

[Sir Finkus]

Try lang-8.com.  It's for writing journals in a language you are trying to learn, then having native speakers correct them.  It may not be exactly what you're looking for, but there is a lot of proofreading to be done.  English seems to be the most popular language to learn, so it should keep you busy.

:edit: There is a paid option for lang-8, but it doesn't do much.  Paid members just get priority placement on the list of things that need to be checked (the first 5 or so spots are reserved for them) and can export pdfs of their journals.  The free version is 100% functional.

[DeadlyLintRoller]

I suppose you could make a zero bid on Task Rabbit. but why would you when you can make money.

Or be a volunteer tutor at a local school.

[themaheri]

Just wanted to say thanks, lang-8 is close enough for now.  Most of it is dedicated to hobby work but I did get to proof a few English papers and a teacher's recommendation for a student coming to the US...  That and I have a dire case of the yellow fever, so having beautiful women thank me is awesome. 

[Sir Finkus]

Just wanted to say thanks, lang-8 is close enough for now.  Most of it is dedicated to hobby work but I did get to proof a few English papers and a teacher's recommendation for a student coming to the US...  That and I have a dire case of the yellow fever, so having beautiful women thank me is awesome. 

Personal experience: You'll have to beat them off with a stick. I've gotten dozens of friend requests in the week I've been a member, and I'm an asshole.  They only want to be friends because I know English, but then again, I DO know English.

[Ghills]

Have you thought about Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders? They turn public domain books into ebooks.  It's a pretty good system. http://www.pgdp.net/c/

EDIT:  Ah, you already found something.

[themaheri]

Ya... project Gutenberg...
It has been recommended to me in the past but it is really hard to justify working on it unless you simply love reading random stuff.  I've never heard of anything on there... and I highly doubt most of the works will receive more than a 100 reads after translation.  I don't know.  At this point I think the human race generates far more written material than we will ever care about, trying to preserve much of it is a waste of time.  I realize proofing a silly English paper isn't much better, but I do love the fact that the one person you end up helping is thrilled for five seconds before forgetting about you.

Thanks though

[Ghills]

Yeah, there is that.  It's not just random stuff  on DP, though - you get to pick the book you proof. 

I think a lot of the proofreaders come because they know there's a specific book they want, and then there's a core of dedicated people who do it for principle.

From what I've seen a lot of Gutenberg books do get read, just because they're free, legal, and electronic.  There are a surprisingly small number of books like that.  The Gutenberg site only tracks statistics by the week, though, so it's hard to tell how many people are actually using a book.