I have learnt a lot from you all and I hope you did so to.

REPORT ON THE FORUMS:

THE REVIEWS

Almost all who took part gave a review of some kind and may I say some straight from the heart. I don't know if h2g2 want articles to win a literary prize, my view is that something that becomes technically perfect often becomes boring. Some pianist are so good and absolutely correct that something gets lost, the playing has no feeling and the soul disappears in technicallities. The same applies to painters, singers and many other performing artist.

When artist show off their work (Including writers) - THEY ARE INITIALLY LOOKING FOR PRAISE. A Critic on the other hand is looking to pull it to bits and reshape it. Their review is (kind of) their masterpiece. The point I am try to make is that it was good to see (in the main) a repartee between writer & reviewer and appreciating each others efforts.

As I said most gave gut comments although I could see from certain quarters, It went against the grain and showed in their responses or lack of them.

We had a Sub-Editor on tow, something I did not realize until later. His article is the first Fun Run article to be accepted, we hope for many more. I wonder if any of the h2g2 Editors would be so brave as to take a pummelling in future runs by entering the Fun Run themselves. (will this challange go unanswered)

HELPFUL INFO

The least used forum. Many had given their all in the review and included helpful info within it. This left very little to say on the info forum.

RATING

I thought the rating column would have been more successful than it was, it got off to a very slow start. It was Jim Lynns idea and the point of it was that when a page got to a certain rating, it would automatically get dumped (Kinda Marked Urgent) on an editors desk. Whilst I thought it may be that researchers would prefer to do this anonymously, Ginger pointed out to me that I had not stressed the importance of the rating system (True Guilty as charged).
The rating I have given has taken into consideration altered text where notified.

1. Th@ annoying @ symbol by Løønytünes & PP. An amusing piece naming the @ sign, I rather like the definition posted by Paul the brake. Ambitus - kinda suits the little critter @
   
   DICT DEF:
   
   
   ambitus \1. The exterior edge or border of a thing, as the border of a leaf, or the outline of a bivalve shell.
   Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
   
   
   ambitus "border, edge, extent /going around, circuit"
   
   ambitus circumference
   
   Source: IDP Latin Dictionary
   
   
   Thankyou www.Dictionary.com for the above definitions
   
   Rating: between 5 & 6
   

2. Yateley (Hampshire, U.K.): An informative piece about the town by The Dancing Tree. What is there to say - It became an official entry - Well done - It was criticised by a number of people for being to long. If you were not reading it as a guide to a town on h2g2 and saw it in a magazine you would say it was to short. It was almost perfectly written and because of this some reacted by saying it lacked humour. I feel they may have confused this with perhaps lacking a little in feeling but as a short guide to the town it was well written. It is not and was not intended as a novel on Yately ! It has certainly put me off visiting apart from the Market Place. An honest local point of view, many people do not like the area in which they live and this comes across quite strongly in this article or at least the way Yately has been spoilt.
   
   Rating: between 7 & 8

3. Parenthood: A fresh view of the subject by Smurf, someone fairly new to realm of motherhood. As others have pointed out there are many more Pros & Cons that could be included - maybe a section asking others to put their pros & cons as I know some reviewers did. A nice little piece, which is informative with a light hearted style in writing.
   
   Rating: between 5 & 6

4. FIRE: A different perspective on the subject by Si, this has been written in the early style of h2g2 and depending on which (sub)Editor gets hold of it, will see if it stays in the same format as it is. It is different and most readers enjoyed the light hearted manner in which it was written. Si did not answer any of the reviews and I have not seen or heard of him/her for some while now. A good entry and would be an interesting addition to the guide. As far as reviewers/researchers are concerned, they seem to like the almost DNA style of writing, which shows in the high rating it received.
   
   Rating: between 8 & 9

5. Poetry: A brief description as to what poetry is, by Sparrow Hawk, and is a well written piece on the subject. A suggestion that it could be the front page of a whole host of pages on the subject was raised. This could be the way forward for this page as it does not contain any poetry within it. If accepted as a guide entry the editor will have to put some effort in collating all the other pages on the subject and putting cross links between them - Could be well worth the effort.
   
   Rating: between 7 & 8

6. KITCHEN CABINET: A dictionary entry by Jax, and Jax was slated by the reviewers. I thought it was amusing and that is why I think Jax posted it - to share with readers a light hearted look at the dictionary.

   I feel it could be worthy of being a guide entry using Editor's Mark Moxom's method and (seemingly) favourite interactive page entries. By pointing out the the silly side of the dictionary entry, you could then ask other researchers to add other funny dictionary entries they have seen. (Just a thought)
   
   Rating between 3 & 4

7. Poetry: The second Entry but very different from the first. A more light hearted approach to the subject and moving from poetry to poets - I know that h2g2 is inundated with poetry articles and it was said somewhere (cant remember where) that an editor will look at the first entry with interest but interest wanes after seeing something for the umptenth time, or something like that. The thing is if something generates so much interest, surely as many different points of view should be included as possible. I make no bones about it, I am not into poetry but many are.
   
   Rating: between 8 & 9

8. Oh Gnats: My own entry and well received - A light hearted look at the little devils that plague us - thank you. I have been very busy on and off h2g2, but I will get it updated - I promise.
   
   Rating: between 7 & 8

I am looking to the future of the Fun Run and would like to have a theme to some of the runs - One would be about five of the editors to put up a page and the let the reseachers let rip at them. Another could be Millenium articles where reseachers name their favourite moments/songs/lyrics/people etc of the 1900's