URANTIA Book Dissemination

[tas]

Van Amadon wrote:

tas, I like your bigbluebook.org site. What I like most is that I can copy a link to a specific Paper Section. That’s handy. I’m curious, there doesn’t seem to be a search feature?

That’s correct, there isn’t a search feature for the website currently. Maybe someday, but it wouldn’t be too soon.

Links also work down to the paragraph level. Here’s a link to paper 4, section 5, paragraph 6 as a random example:

https://bigbluebook.org/4/5/6/

Or if you’ve got a page number you want to go to (Urantia Foundation pagination 1 – 2,097), it understands those in a few different ways. These all will take you to page 500 of the book:

https://bigbluebook.org/p/500
https://bigbluebook.org/pg/500
https://bigbluebook.org/page/500

The site is meant to be “the book and nuthin but the book” and is used for sharing it. The websites of the UB organization necessarily have a whole lot about the organizations themselves, and the text of the book is folded inside a lot of busy distractions from that. I think it can also be off-putting to some brand new readers that jump to conclusions about “strange religious groups” instead of just having the book alone for their first impression.  My own app doesn’t reference anyone or any organizations (except copyright notices on the translations), I like the idea of people having a pure discovery of the book on its own terms. The website is the same. Lean, functional, fast, and simple, and let the book speak for itself.

Frankly I don’t think the typography of the web versions from the organizations are too good. While I was at it I made these improvements (to my mind) compared to other online versions:

• The paragraph spacing on https://bigbluebook.org is like the original edition of the book. That I’m aware of, no other site shows the paragraph clustering from the original 1955 version. It subtly groups related material in each section and makes it easier to absorb, at least for me. I obtained the paragraph spacing data from another typography nut who is also into the Urantia Book and then verified each page myself against a PDF scan of a 1955 first edition of the book
• Paragraph indentation like a real book
• Serif font like books typically have instead of sans serif
• Reference numbers are hidden by default instead of there being a mess of numbers in front of every paragraph. If you tap on the blank spacing of a paragraph’s leading indentation, the reference numbers should appear, and tapping again makes them disappear. On a desktop computer, just hovering a mouse pointer over the indentation spacing also will make the reference number appear, and then it will fade like disappearing ink on its own after several seconds. Clicking any reference number will switch them all on to be visible and stay visible, and they can be turned off again with a second click.
• The English text includes page numbers as reference numbers, but unlike other sites that cram both standard reference numbers (Paper:Section.Paragraph) and page numbers in front of every paragraph, making a visual mess IMO, page numbers are used only for the first paragraph of each page while all the other paragraphs use the P:S.P format.

[Van Amadon]

tas wrote:

The site is meant to be “the book and nuthin but the book” and is used for sharing it. The websites of the UB organization necessarily have a whole lot about the organizations themselves, and the text of the book is folded inside a lot of busy distractions from that. I think it can also be off-putting to some brand new readers that jump to conclusions about “strange religious groups” instead of just having the book alone for their first impression. My own app doesn’t reference anyone or any organizations (except copyright notices on the translations), I like the idea of people having a pure discovery of the book on its own terms. The website is the same. Lean, functional, fast, and simple, and let the book speak for itself. Frankly I don’t think the typography of the web versions from the organizations are too good.

You’re app has answered my prayers!

I think you’re onto it. I agree with you, the other online book versions are not that great for the reasons you outlined, but your app is going to be a big plus for the purposes I’m interested in.

When working with curious but cautious people out there, the put-off you described is a very difficult problem to overcome. Your site now makes it possible to introduce the UB in a less obtrusive way. That’s the key to getting people unaware of the Urantia Book to take it in without becoming suspicious that they’re being railroaded. Feeding them the cake while they can think they’re not eating it too.

I will make good use of it tas.

Thank you very much. 

[chucksmith1982]

Thanks for the website. I’ve glanced through it, or in my case, listened through it with my screenreader, and I find it very blind friendly. I can’t speak to the I Phone app as I don’t use one, but I’ve added bigbluebook.org to my urantia book resources folder that I created under favorites.

This is truly an answered prayer for me as well for the reasons sited by others above. It is, as you said, the book and nothing but the book. I plan to use it when I want to simply read our favorite book. I also plan to direct anyone that I think might be interested in our favorite book to the site as well. I normally direct them to the foundations’ website, but yours is, as you point out, strictly the book without any groups thrown in. It, in my opinion, is a better website to be directed to if you are a first time reader rather than one of the “urantia camps” where a new reader can find the book plus everything else about the particular “camp” that said reader might be visiting.

Thanks again!

 

Chuck

[Author]

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