Discussion of Voynich MS-related theories

[-JKP-]

I was basing that number of on some of the attempts I have seen over the years that have been discussed or presented online. It's just a general ballpark. Many have attempted it and only found a few. What I was trying to get across is that it's a challenging project.

So why is that figure based on other people's attempts and not your own? Surely your own attempt would be a better basis for working from as you seem to regard it as more complete than others.

I doubt any have put close to the time and effort into it that I have. It is insufferably boring if one has real attention to detail. I have not just matched, but also in addition to the 40%-45% I have listed possible though less clear matches even where there may be multiple, in short I have examined every single small plant and compared it with every single large plant to find the best match(es), sheer torture. Organising everything in a spreadsheet is tedious. I only have gone through this rigmarole as I really want the resultant data.

So you don't need to tell me it is a challenging project, but when it comes to Voynich research I hardly shy away from challenging projects.

It's an average. If 20 people find 10 matches and 1 person finds 30 matches, obviously the average will not be high. It's not an exact number, Mark. The number was in the context of a larger discussion about how it's a challenging project and also a discussion that we DO NOT KNOW how many the more dedicated researchers have found because research is not always published (or is not yet published). I've seen numerous attempts where people found only a handful of matches. In other words, you don't know if you have done the most dedicated research on this subject.

The over-riding message I was trying to get across is that until it is published, it is a self-generated number that has not been peer-reviewed. In other words, there is no way to know how well it will stand up to scrutiny. It's no different from Voynich "solutions". People are convinced they have solved it. When they publish it, other people have a different opinion.