The View at h2g2
Created | Updated Jul 11, 2003
This week the View scans the latest goings on, puts up a notice about the changes in h2g2's House Rules, and discusses what the latest site changes will really mean for writers.
The State of Peer Review
The Peer Review system is looking a bit different because of the recent site changes. The most obvious is that the Coming Up page has been removed (for now) because its manual nature didn't work with the new automated system. The page now reads in part:
"At some stage (no promises of a deadline!) this page will be automated to display all the entries in the Editorial Process:
Recommended entries that haven't made it to a Sub yet
Entries that are currently being edited by the Subs
Entries that are back from the Subs and waiting for publication"
Such a list would be much more accurate than the one we've had, which only listed entries that hadn't made it to a Sub-Editor.
In the meanwhile, Mark Moxon has offered to send me these statistics now and again. If the Coming Up page was the same way as before, it would have 16 entries on it (compared to 26 last week). However, there are 87 entries assigned to Sub-Editors and 83 more that are edited and waiting to appear on the front page. You see, we've only been looking at the tip of the iceberg!
Also, the number of threads on the Peer Review page is down quite a bit from 233 to 194. That's a rather large drop for one week. The h2g2 Scouts have told me it is now easier to move inappropriate entries out of Peer Review, so I would guess that's the cause.
To reflect this fact, more entries have been moved into the usual areas than I typically see. The Sin Bin went up from 202 to 215 this week. More noticeably, the Writing Workshop went up from 325 entries to 347.
The amount of feedback in Peer Review stayed about the same. The longest a thread has gone without comment is five weeks, same as before. And 80 threads have received comment within the past week, compared to 83 before. The number of entries appearing on the front page has also been steady at five per day, with an addition of 8 entries coming from Mina's University project on Paris.
Meanwhile, a talking point was created to discuss Guide Entries That Should Be Written. Do pop by if you're looking for an entry to write. For that matter, pop by if you've got an interesting subject in mind you just don't feel qualified to write about. Chances are that somebody out there could grab your idea and run with it.
A Look At The Rest of h2g2
Once we get outside Peer Review, we still see that things are changing around a bit. For instance, there has been an update to the House Rules that explain what is and isn't acceptable at this site. It's been so long since I've looked at the original version that I wasn't even completely sure what's different. After making several guesses as to what all might be new, Mark Moxon has corrected me. The only change is that you aren't allowed to post for suspended researchers.
This doesn't mean you can't post something about a suspended researcher. You just can't repeat what they've said verbatim or let them post things through your account. If people did that, then h2g2 couldn't really suspend someone effectively.
Last week, I reported on the new Smileys. At the time, I had this foolish idea that the 40 new Smileys would satisfy everyone's Smiley appetite for a while. Of course, I should have known we're an insatiable bunch. The campaign for a towel Smiley goes on unabated, and there seems to be one for a toffee apple Smiley as well. And the practice of using <nonexistentSmileys> seems just as common now as it was before. I guess we'll never stop craving new Smileys.
There are, by the way, a couple of new shortcuts you can use for some popular new Smileys. You can now use <capp> for the cappucino Smiley. You can use o/~ for the musical note Smiley.
Another slight site update done at the same time allows you to put as many links as you like in your h2g2 entries without worrying whether they will all be included in the Entry Data box to the side of the page. This change mostly effects people who maintain group pages with membership lists and/or directories.
Unfortunately, the FORMS tag has now been disallowed with GuideML, so many folks will find their old polls and drop-down boxes have stopped working. The change comes in response to form-driven buttons that make automatic posts on behalf of the person clicking. It was feared that these might be used to put words in someone's mouth that they didn't mean to say. You can read about these changes and the new GuideML gadgets you can use to replace your old code here.
The End of LeKZ
On the far less fun side of h2g2, Arpeggio/LeKZ has been banned from h2g2 for life. I dare not go into the exact details behind the banning since it's so complicated, but I'll just say there is some disagreement about it. You can read the details of this latest development and a discussion of the few other people who have been permanently banned from h2g2 in this very long thread.
Sadly, Barton has left h2g2 in protest over the banning. Lucinda/MyRedDice and A Girl Called Ben have also voluntarily left for a week to sort out their feelings over the matter. I really hope we don't lose any additional researchers over this controversy.
While LeKZ can not return, a person who lives with her has joined h2g2. Not Banned Yet came on board during the one-week suspension that preceded LeKZ's full banishment.
If all of this is just too depressing for anyone out there, I recommend a visit to an ironically named musical group at h2g2. The Banned are a group of virtual non-musicians who won't be playing near you anytime soon.
So What About Those New Tools For Scouts and Sub-Editors?
I opened up a page for discussion and Mark Moxon was kind enough to make sure the affected volunteers knew I was seeking their opinions. Feel free to check out the discussion page. The conversations are still going on as I write this entry.
Overall the volunteers seem to like the new tools. They do simplify the process by several steps, although this isn't immediately visible to anyone else. The Scouts particularly like how it is easier to move entries to the Writing Workshop or the Sin Bin if they aren't ready or appropriate for Peer Review. And the Sub-Editors are happy that they can work on-site now instead of having to turn in emails full of GuideML code.
Also important, the new automated tools could be built upon to further automate other steps in the process -- like the Coming Up page discussed at the top of this column. The dream for me is to have the entirety of Peer Review automated. But we're still a good ways off from that becoming a reality.
The only thing the volunteers don't like as much is that the changes leave them with slightly less control over their work. For instance, a Sub-Editor now presses a button when they feel they are done editing an entry for h2g2's main page. Once that is done, they can not modify the entry again in any way. Even if they notice something horribly wrong, they have little choice but to contact one of h2g2's employees and ask them to correct the problem. The Scouts, meanwhile, don't get much chance to discuss amongst themselves whether an entry should be in the Edited Guide. Once the button's been pressed, what's done is done.
Writers will notice a few differences due to the changes:
The biggest shift is that authors will now receive an email when their entry has been chosen for the Edited Guide. They'll still receive the one telling them when their entry is featured on the main page too. So two emails total will be sent.
A second change may not be so easy to notice. The Sub-Editors can now turn in entries individually as they are done with them, instead of having to wait until their entire batch of entries is complete. This means expert writers with entries that need little polish will not have to wait while the Sub-Editor wrestles with a less polished entry. Some very good writers may get slightly quicker turnaround as a result. Since Sub-Editors still have to finish their batch to get new entries, the change won't be huge.
A final difference may be noticed by vigilant writers who like to check the changes the Sub-Editor has made to their entry before it is featured. In the past, you could check your personal page for a new entry number on your subject that is marked 'recommended' or 'pending.' You could check daily if you liked and eventually you would see the Sub-Editor's changes and get a chance to comment on them. Now, you'll only see that new article number after the Sub-Editor is done.
Remember, at that point the Sub-Editor can't change anything without getting an h2g2 employee involved. So I would guess that h2g2's Italics are going to be dealing with more editing. It's either that, or h2g2's writers will have to satisfy themselves with fewer complaints about the editing of various entries. You can probably guess which I think is more likely.
One possible solution brought up during our conversation was that perhaps someday Sub-Editors could press a button telling h2g2 to email the entry's original author and ask them to check the editing job. Then the author could comment before it's too late. However, that would bring the number of emails for each Edited Guide Entry up to three. Will the writers really like being bugged that often?
I want to thank all the Scouts and Sub-Editors who took time out to discuss the recent changes. I learned a lot, and I'm glad I could pass on what I learned from you to the other folks out there.
The Next View
Next week will mark this column's one year anniversary. Have I really been writing for the h2g2 Post that long? I guess I have. I'll take the opportunity to look how things are the same and how they are different from a year ago.
Written by Fragilis the Melodical.
Feel free to check out my past columns.
