The View at h2g2
Created | Updated Jun 22, 2003
This week, the View applauds the Guide's 2500th Edited Entry. And it asks you: When will the Edited Guide feel complete? Plus we continue Project Spy.
This Week's View
There are 31 entries on the What's Coming Up page, compared to 20 a week ago. And there are 289 entries on the Peer Review page, a increase of 72 in the past week. If we add the statistics together, we get a total of 320 entries, a whopping overall decrease of 61 since my last report.
But a cursory check reveals where most of this decrease comes from. This past week, 55 threads were moved from the Peer Review page to the Writing Workshop. There was only one thread there last week. There are also 119 threads in the Sin Bin this week, 10 more than last week. So most of the decrease in Peer Review entries was created by moving entries elsewhere, outside formal consideration for the Edited Guide.
Another project from the University of Life was released last week. The British Pop Music of the 1980s project yielded 11 entries. Mark Moxon told me to expect University projects to keep coming indefinitely. It sounds like the University is starting to hold its own as a legitimate process for entry creation outside the Peer Review page.
2500 Entries and Counting
There are 2515 Edited Guide Entries as I write this report. Long ago, I gave my opinion that the Edited Guide would probably start feeling complete at around 5000 entries. This would mean that we're about halfway there now. But does it feel like we're halfway there? Was my opinion even close to correct? I guess that's debatable.
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Project Spy
Project Spy is an ongoing project for this column. Several volunteers send me weekly updates on their entry's progress through the Peer Review system. Through them, we get to spy on the emotional component that makes the editing process at h2g2 so unusual.
Two of my four volunteers have sent me an email so far this week. If other reports are sent in later, I'll save them for the next View.
Volunteer #1
December 16th:
Last weekend, my computer broke down and I didn't move the hard disk over to the new one yet. Therefore some thoughts are not lost, but inaccessible at this moment.
There isn't much activity going on with the entry now that it has been recommended. I know by now that it takes a few weeks for some sub-ed to copy the piece, check it for copyright violations, elimininate, err, smelling pistakes, and all that. It is the time now for some fine tuning, polishing, looking out for related links and that. Eventually the A-number will change to indicate that work is in progress, and patience is what is asked from my side.
Volunteer #3
December 15th:
Good news. Following on (I presume) from the thread on your column, a couple of scouts dropped by and commented favourably, and then yesterday the recommendation (following a third scout's intervention) came through, so [the entry] is on its way to acceptance. Praise and encouragement are nice, but a little constructive criticism would have been equally well received by me.
[An entry submitted earlier by the volunteer] also attracted a complimentary note, so I hope it will also get recommended soon.
Finally, some good news. The first entry that I ever wrote has been 'pending' now for a couple of weeks, so will, I hope, get to the guide within days, as my first 'success'. This has been all the way through Peer Review, but was written at the end of July...that's five months.
Best Regards
The Next View
The h2g2 Post will be taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays. But when we return, the View will explore how h2g2's writers can make the Edited Guide feel more complete. Looking for the gaps can be excellent way to find inspiration. I'll show you how. Project Spy also continues with the next column.
Click here to see previous weeks' Views.
Opinions expressed in this column are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of h2g2 or the Post.
