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        Arimaa >> Arimaa Buzz >> What book is this?
        
(Message started by: Hirocon on Oct 11^th, 2010, 2:14am)

Title: What book is this?
Post by Hirocon on Oct 11^th, 2010, 2:14am

This list (http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/59695/item/1430067) over at BoardGameGeek lists games about which there is literature. I added Arimaa to the list and linked Fritzlein's book.

Before adding Arimaa to the list I went to Amazon.com to see if chessandgo's book was published yet. Searching for "Arimaa" at Amazon.com brings up, among other things, this book (http://www.amazon.com/Arimaa-Frederic-P-Miller/dp/6132539158/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1286780742&sr=8-3). What is it? I had never seen it before. The Amazon.com listing makes it look like a compilation of information from Wikipedia. Are there really 100 pages of information about Arimaa on Wikipedia? Where did this book come from?

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by rbarreira on Oct 11^th, 2010, 3:28am

That is quite strange. But the reference to wikipedia makes me think they're talking about the Wikibook on Arimaa:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Arimaa

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by clojure on Oct 11^th, 2010, 4:40am

It seems people have got idea to publish featured Wikibooks as printed books.

Quote:

An Amazon.com book search on 9 June 2009 gives 1009 (6 August, gives 1,859) "books" from Alphascript Publishing.[nan 1] 1003 of the books are described as "by John McBrewster, Frederic P. Miller, and Agnes F. Vandome". They are called editors in the book listings. It seems the only content of the many books is free Wikipedia articles with no sign that these three people have contributed to them.

The articles are often poorly printed with features such as missing characters from foreign languages, and numerous images of arrows where Wikipedia had links. It appears much better to read the original articles for free at the Wikipedia website than paying a lot of money for what has been described as a scam or hoax. Advertising for the books at Amazon and elsewhere does not reveal the free source of all the content. It is only revealed inside the books which may satisfy the license requirements for republishing of Wikipedia articles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-08-17/News_and_notes

In another news, Arimaa wikibook has been identified as having substantial content and quality. Congrats for writers. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Featured_books

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by omar on Oct 12^th, 2010, 8:25am

If you click on any of the editors listed for the book you see that they have almost 68,000 books from Alphascript Publishing. All the books say they are based on Wikipedia content. What a fraud. I hope nobody has bought this Arimaa book. I'll contact them and also Amazon and ask them to remove it.

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by Fritzlein on Oct 12^th, 2010, 11:41am

on 10/12/10 at 08:25:40, omar wrote:

I seriously doubt Amazon will take it down, since the editors have a legal right to sell WikiBooks content. The real joke is the $44 price tag when my book is selling for $17. The way to prevent people from getting suckered is to comment on the specific item saying that my book is better content for less. ;D

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by omar on Oct 13^th, 2010, 12:51pm

on 10/12/10 at 11:41:44, Fritzlein wrote:

Yes, I already submitted a review yesterday to this effect and I noticed today that it was posted on the site. Cool.

Title: Re: What book is this?
Post by Fritzlein on Oct 13^th, 2010, 3:27pm

on 10/13/10 at 12:51:38, omar wrote:

Yes, I already submitted a review yesterday to this effect and I noticed today that it was posted on the site. Cool.

Thanks, Omar!