Making “mods” of Ebooks?

[GotPlatinum]

I recently came across this entry on Tvtropes.

Dear Negative Reader: In response to criticisms over the frequent usage of derogatory or offensive language in the earlier books (including from characters intended to be heroic / sympathetic), P.C. Cast tweeted that when she began writing the books in 2005, she used language that reflected then-contemporary teenage vernacular and that if you were bothered by it you should stop reading. She later backtracked a bit, with both P.C. and Kristin Cast assuring readers that the new e-book editions of House of Night would be revised to remove this language and that the more recent Other World series didn't include this. The printed editions of the books are apparently unchanged, though.

Sharing modified ebooks in its entirety is a huge no-no for obvious reasons, but after learning that Delta Patcher works on epub files, it got me thinking: would it be possible to make patches, or “mods” to restore content for ebook readers, provided the patch only contains the changes? Searching on Google only gave me answers that were in the context of reselling.

[gerey]

is a huge no-no for obvious reasons

Just pirate the slop. If the author is such a cuck he or she self-censors and butchers their own work because leftist subhuman companied about it online, then said author is not deserving of your own money (or time for that matter).

Now, I do agree that sourcing uncucked versions of e-books can be a challenge since those that do store and share them don't do a particularly good job of tracking which version of the book it is, but pirated copies are made as soon as a book is released, so what you can find is the original version of the work, or at the very least the earliest version released digitally.

[GotPlatinum]

is a huge no-no for obvious reasons

Just pirate the slop. If the author is such a cuck he or she self-censors and butchers their own work because leftist subhuman companied about it online, then said author is not deserving of your own money (or time for that matter).

Now, I do agree that sourcing uncucked versions of e-books can be a challenge since those that do store and share them don't do a particularly good job of tracking which version of the book it is, but pirated copies are made as soon as a book is released, so what you can find is the original version of the work, or at the very least the earliest version released digitally.

At least for Kindle ebooks, authors can edit ebooks after it's published and readers who already paid can have their ebooks updated automatically or be prompted to update the ebook, not aware of the changes. As far as I can tell, it's not possible to revert it unless you had the foresight to save the files elsewhere.

That's partly why the patches would be useful IMO, so you wouldn't have to scour through sites that may or may not have a de-censored version, or the ebook in general if it's more obscure. On a different note, if the ebook has some unnecessary DEI elements? Patch it out.

[madbringer]

Can you provide an example where that would be useful, beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors?

[Nemesis]

Can you provide an example where that would be useful, beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors?

An example of modding an ebook? Here's one: Correcting the pronouns in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy.

The story is told from the perspective of a robot, and it uses "she" for each character, regardless of gender. This choice makes reading the books and keeping up with the characters a chore.

[J1M]

There's not much value to a patch. The file size is so small it would be far simpler to just distribute the modified book. As in a "total conversion mod".

[J1M]

Can you provide an example where that would be useful, beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors?

An example of modding an ebook? Here's one: Correcting the pronouns in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy.

The story is told from the perspective of a robot, and it uses "she" for each character, regardless of gender. This choice makes reading the books and keeping up with the characters a chore.

Yep. This exact problem with the political use of "they" for everyone does a great job of ruining many game experiences. Most popular one was probably WoW starting in Shadowlands.

[rusty_shackleford]

wikipedia articles that have been vandalized changed to use singular they are unreadable to anyone not part of the cult

[J1M]

wikipedia articles that have been vandalized changed to use singular they are unreadable to anyone not part of the cult

Not a problem! The cult doesn't read.

[madbringer]

Can you provide an example where that would be useful, beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors?

An example of modding an ebook? Here's one: Correcting the pronouns in Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch trilogy.

The story is told from the perspective of a robot, and it uses "she" for each character, regardless of gender. This choice makes reading the books and keeping up with the characters a chore.

That is fucking retarded. I would say I cannot believe an editor let that go, but I can.

[GotPlatinum]

Can you provide an example where that would be useful, beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors?

Another example that springs to mind is undoing the "modernizing" of Pretty Little Liars. One example being reverting the "You guys want to come over and watch this TikTok I found?" to the original "You guys want to come over and watch Fear Factor?" among others.

There's not much value to a patch. The file size is so small it would be far simpler to just distribute the modified book. As in a "total conversion mod".

It's not really a matter of file sizes, but rather a way to distribute only the modifications and not the book itself so that people don't have to resort to piracy, which even this site doesn't allow.

[Nemesis]

I would say I cannot believe an editor let that go, but I can.

It's all part of the "world building."

[asf]

Actual solution is not reading anything written by women

[Irenaeus]

Actual solution is not reading anything written by women

I'd open an exception for Ann Radcliffe.

It was actually her husband WIlliam writing the novels but using her name as a gimmick, same as Mary Shelley and her husband Percy.