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Di rule wey we build di corpus under, wey we talk so dat person fit check am against di corpus itself. Code dey enforce some of am instead of leaving am to author care.
Di policy hold di three of dem and e refuse to trade any one away.
Nothing dey lost
Nothing wey carry meaning dey drop. Tone marks and subdots dey preserved, we name di translator, and di original dey stand beside di rendering instead of di rendering replacing am.
Di widest coverage
Di corpus dey reach for di widest documented record wey e fit reach, including material wey cautious project for leave out because to source am na work.
Di least copyright exposure
We take facts freely, we no dey take expression, and anything wey im rights position no clear, we mark am instead of quietly shipping am.
Di three dey pull against each other. Coverage wan include everything; copyright caution wan include less; lossless fidelity wan reproduce di original exactly, and na exactly dat one copyright dey restrict. Di rest of dis page na how di tension dey resolve for each case.
We take dem freely: facts, ideas, dates, structures, findings. Copyright no dey protect facts or ideas, na only dia expression e dey protect. Date, lineage, archaeological finding, etymology, structural feature of one Odù, di argument wey scholar dey make: all of dem person fit restate. Di corpus dey restate for im own prose and dey cite di source wey e learn am from.
We no dey ever take: another author expression, selection or arrangement. Compilation get protection as compilation even when every single item inside am dey public domain, so copying di selection of one collection na infringement even where copying one single entry no go be.
We no dey ever take: third-party translation, as if e be free stock. Published translation na di translator own expression and e get full protection separate from wetin e translate. Di translations wey dey here na either our own, or public domain, or openly licensed, or dem quote am at length wey fair dealing clearly support, and we attribute dem for every case.
Person no fit paraphrase proverb, oríkì or ẹsẹ Ifá without spoiling am, so primary texts na di one place where di corpus dey reproduce instead of restating. For each one, e dey use di highest rung wey e fit really reach.
1. Public domain because of age
Collections and vocabularies before 1930: Crowther (1843, 1852), Bowen (1858), Ellis (1894), and di early twentieth-century collections wey Yorùbá authors write. Copyright don expire and reproduction no carry any exposure at all.
2. Openly licensed, or published for open-access repository
Text wey publisher or university repository imself don put out openly. Dis na licence, no be assumption, so we check am against di repository own statement instead of assuming am because page just load.
3. Collected for field or contributed
With di contributor consent recorded, and with attribution, region and dialect recorded beside di text.
4. Quote wey reach fair-dealing level
Single proverb or short verse wey we quote from work wey still dey under copyright, for comment and criticism, with full citation. Never a run of entries, and never di source own selection.
5. E no publish
If none of di four above dey reachable, di text no dey enter and we mark di gap as gap. Dis rung na wetin di policy dey exist to make available: not shipping na always option and e always cheap pass di alternative.
Na di ladder dey make di widest coverage and di least exposure fit stay together. Almost every text dey reachable at one rung; di work na to find which one, and we dey do di finding before publication instead of after complaint.
Sourcing na also question of wetin one source fit establish, and three kinds of source dey establish three different kinds of thing.
Wetin di tradition talk about imself
Ifá verses, oríkì, origin accounts, wetin lineage hold about im own founding. Real evidence of wetin di tradition hold. No be evidence of dates, migrations or events.
Wetin di documentary and material record establish
Archaeology, historical linguistics, dated documents, radiocarbon results, art-historical analysis. Dis one fit establish say something happen, within di error bars wey dem state.
Wetin colonial, missionary and early ethnographic sources claim
Plenty times na di only written record wey survive for one period, and at di same time na pipo wey get clear interest for wetin dem find, produce am. E usable, but never at face value, and we always label am as artefact of im own moment.
Na by mixing dem, di hostile account and di celebration account both dey miss road: di hostile one take di third register as fact, di celebration one take di first one as history. Every claim inside di corpus talk which register e dey draw from.
Three things for dis policy no dey left to author care. Code dey check dem.
0 across 694 documents
1,866,050
Every serious claim carry inline marker
Marker inside bracket wey resolve to named source for di file own Sources block, wey di corpus writing contract make compulsory for every file.
Citation wey no dey exist go get rescue, or di claim go cut
Verification pass dey check every citation against library catalogues and databases. Anything wey e no fit find dey go to grounded search wey must locate real published source wey support di same passage. Di verdict na either replacement source, or unsupported, and for dat case we cut or soften di passage. Na source wey search find dis turn, or nothing.
Bare-domain URL dey dropped
We only keep citation URL when e get path. Bare domain no identify anything, and citation wey land for homepage no be citation.
Di proverb corpus na di one place where di exposure concentrate, so we publish im position instead of leaving am implicit.
1,278 proverbs across 32 files comot from open etext collection wey dem host publicly, dem attribute am, and e defensible as e stand.
410 proverbs across 26 files dey cited by entry number to book wey still dey print. We dey re-source dis set before any commercial release, under di rules below.
To cite entry number no be problem by imself, and to quote single proverb for comment na ordinary fair dealing. Di exposure dey for scale and for selection: several hundred entries wey person take for di order wey di book put dem dey reproduce dat book arrangement, wey get protection separate from di proverbs demselves.
Re-source each one to independent attestation
Anywhere open attestation dey, so dat source wey di corpus fit point at dey carry di proverb, no be di in-print book arrangement. Grounded gather dey find dose attestations, and we dey check im counts file by file before we publish any figure wey come from dem.
Prefer di open edition where di same publisher don make one
Where publisher imself don put di material inside open repository, cite di open edition instead of di print one. Dat one dey turn exposure to licence, and na di outcome to prefer anywhere e dey available.
Keep am or cut am, where nothing independent dey found
Di entry go either stay as single quoted proverb with full citation and comment, wey fair dealing support, or e go cut. E no dey kept as part of unbroken run of di source own ordering.
Break di arrangement anyhow
Di corpus own files dey organised by subject, no be by any source entry sequence, so di ordering na di corpus own selection, no be reproduction of anybody compilation.
We no dey publish any count of how many of dose entries don get re-sourcing until di work finish and we don check di results. To publish number wey go later shift go worse pass to publish none.
Attribution no be decoration for dis corpus. Di citations na di argument: di reason wey dis project dey exist na because di account of Yorùbá tradition wey spread pass no get source, and reader wey dey decide whether to trust dis one dey decide based on di apparatus. Reuse wey strip di citations dey reproduce exactly di problem wey dem build di project to fix.
We name sources generously, we link dem anywhere link dey, and di corpus dey actively send readers go di original authors and dia books instead of positioning imself as replacement for dem.