Coming Up For Air ?
Mar 17, 2012
Yeah, like in the eponymous book by George Orwell, where a middle-aged bloke goes back to his old childhood haunts to find they have changed beyond recognition. Except this place hasn't changed very much at all. I skim Peer Review to find that Whimsy is still very much an object of first importance, and there is little attempt made to reach out to a wider, more eclectic readership.
To which, many will respond 'the door is always open, and good riddance'. The trouble with that attitude is that h2g2's door is very much a one-way door.
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- Latest reply: Mar 21, 2012
I really wish...
Oct 27, 2010
...I had the time and energy to spend in PR. It looks like there's a whole crop of really good entries ripe for picking.
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Hallowe'en without anagrams...
Oct 19, 2010
is like kippers without custard.
Seriously! Would someone please explain their connection to me?
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- Latest reply: Jun 4, 2011
Now here's an idea for you
Jul 31, 2010
The 'Field Companion'.
Every man and his dog has a smartphone. You can jot notes, take photos, record a video or audio track, even pinpoint your location with GPS.
So how about a h2g2 Field Companion applications which allows you to do proper field research? You set up a new project and have several large friendly buttons which allow you to assemble a narrative as you visit a place, rather like a portable scrapbook. Then, when you get home, you dump it all onto a PC and write it up. It could provide a map of the place using Google Maps, say, and map markers showing where each fragment was recorded.
I have no intention of getting an iPhone and even less of writing an app for one, but when Windows Phone 7 comes out I think it will be a lot easier to do somehting like this.
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Colours to the Mast
Apr 26, 2010
I return to h2g2, and within a few days I find myself wading deeper than advisable into a debate about what kind of stuff should be in the EG. And once again I find myself being misrepresented as having a blinkered mindset and vision of what an EG entry should be about.
So, these following points encapsulate, for the record, what I think the EG should be about:
* Each EG entry should be able to stand on its own merits. You should be able to pick up a magazine with a short article in it, plucked straight from the EG, and read it as an entertaining article in its own right without having to understand its original context. This implies:
* It should not be an exercise in being part of a clique or belabouring an in-joke. I dislike cliques and in-jokes at the best of times, these simply showing that you are a sheep of a slightly different colour. When some of my license fee goes towards publishing this drivel, I start to see red. This view in itself implies that:
* It should not be written to 'pay homage' to Douglas Adams or his works. Paying Homage is a feeble exercise in humour at the best of times and shows a lack of originality. We have a rump of people here who seem to think that they just need to tick a set of boxes to get their work accepted.
* Finally, it should have some grounding in the concerns of others outside h2g2. That is, people who have never visited the site beforehand. I'd like to see people *share* their *experiences*, mainly because NO OTHER site is set up with this express purpose. Moreover, the EG should be a *starting point* for getting people to try new things or take a different look at the world around them, not an end in itself.
Now, the next time someone has the effrontery to accuse me of trying to impose my vision on the Guide, perhaps they'd care to acquaint themselves with what I've written above so they actually know what they're talking about. It would make a change.
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- Latest reply: Jun 8, 2010
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