So.. What should I actually be doing?

[oshfdk]

So this leads me to the post title, what should I be doing actually? What are the things that -if achieved- would actually be considered measurable, agreed upon progress on the VM? 

A few I could think of:
-Finding voynichese text in another manuscript

If it's not some random glyphs resembling Voynichese, but a word (or more) of indisputable clear Voynichese in a document from before the rediscovery of the MS by Voynich, I'd call this one of the most important findings, probably even surpassing in significance the radiocarbon dating.

-Finding a text match for a sentence or paragraph in another plain text manuscript (lords prayer, charm, recipe etc)

This one is tricky to evaluate. How can one be sure something is an exact match for a piece of Voynichese? Unless you know how to read Voynichese, of course.

-Finding a 1:1 matching image/diagram in another manuscript

I think this would be very important, but I'm not very savvy in comparative image analysis. I know there has been some progress recently, but there is always the problem of interpretation.

-Finding proof of ownership in the currently unknown time period

Actually any additional proofs of ownership for before the XX century would be very handy. After all, the manuscript is most likely incomplete, who knows maybe it could be possible to track some of the missing pages.

-Finding a signature/other marginalia match 

I think this is largely the same as the last one?

-Creating a reproducable translation method that translates at least full paragraphs into meaningful text (not things like "apply forcefully candle goat king slowly moon") with very few degrees of freedom in how you choose the translated word (would even this be enough?)

Aha, this is the famous Jobsean "there is one more thing...", isn't it? Yes, I guess being able to read the manuscript would be of some use, definitely.

Happy to see you here! I think this forum definitely needs more people with all kinds of ideas.