View at h2g2
Created | Updated Jun 22, 2003
This week, the View gives its usual overview of the site's goings on. It also provides advice for maintaining a Community group or club.
The State of Peer Review
Our Peer Review system continues to experience fluctuations. There are 248 entries at the Peer Review page, compared to 278 in my last report. It looks like rather a large number of these have moved to the Coming Up page. Usually, that page hosts 20 entries or less but this week it's up to an unprecedented 60. I guess our Sub-Editors have a lot of work ahead of them!
There are 284 entries in the Writing Workshop, compared to 237 before. And the Sin Bin has jumped up to 227. It was a mere 116 the last time I checked, though admittedly that was over a month ago. I would guess the Moderators have cleared a bunch of threads from the Sin Bin that weren't visible before. For the first time, our Peer Review system has twice as many rejected entries as it has contenders for acceptance.
I guess it was inevitable, since Peer Review entries come and go while entries can be stuck in the Writing Workshop or the Sin Bin forever. Still, it makes you wonder what's going to happen to those pages as they get clogged down with more and more entries. While I don't mind the Sin Bin becoming a bit of a graveyard, the Writing Workshop shouldn't also be place of no return.
A Look of the Rest
The Zaphodista-inspired Petition for Greater Freedom on h2g2 has collected 76 signatures online. We can compare this to the 197 signatures gathered when h2g2's employees decided to run an Amnesty International Petition. It looks like things with the Greater Freedom petition are finally slowing down. If you've meant to participate and have been putting it off, now is probably the time.
On another note, we have lost another well-loved Researcher. Pheroneous left us last week. As he has explained to me, his primary reason for leaving was a need to concentrate on his career instead of spending so much time online. Other factors were also involved, but Pheroneous would primarily like to be remembered for his contributions to h2g2. For that matter, I'll remember him for his kind spirit as well.
At the same time, a relatively new Researcher has received a lot of attention. Arpeggio joined h2g2 over five weeks ago. But the verbose woman with multiple personalities really made her presence felt just a couple of weeks ago. There was a dispute over an entry on Intelligence that was submitted to Peer Review in which many people took part, including Arpeggio.
Sadly, the entry's author, Playboy Reporter, decided to leave h2g2 and asked to have all his entries deleted. Some folks blamed Arpeggio, others believed numerous people were to blame, and a few took it to be their own fault. In any case, Arpeggio has been quite active ever since. And discussions about Peer Review and its potential (at its worst) to dissolution new writers have been started in numerous locations at h2g2.
Tips for Running a Community Group or Club
Outside the maelstrom of h2g2's Peer Review system is its rich network of community groups and clubs. These celebrate everything from procrastination to comedy, from sports to science, and from beer to brownies. It's possible to live entirely within h2g2's virtual realms, not even realizing the Herculean effort just beneath the surface of today's entertainment.
Someone must run the Community group for it to survive. I've noticed that groups with really solid memberships will eventually dissolve into a trickle of activity without somebody there who will answer basic questions, update the group's pages, and acknowledge new members and visitors. It can be really sad to watch one of h2g2's virtual areas or clubs die because the originator isn't around.
Earlier, I discussed how to start a community group. Here are a few tips to help you keep your group going.
- Plan on updates. This may sound obvious. But a surprising number of people assume that once they set up a group, it will continue under it's own momentum. This is rarely true. Even a successful group where members help each other is likely to require occasional changes to the group's pages to keep the copy consistent with the latest goings on.
- Ask for ideas. You may have considered your plan thoroughly before your group was born, or you may have slapped up an initial concept to see what response you would get. In either case, you probably didn't think of everything interesting and fun your group could do or discuss. Make clear to your members that you value their ideas. They'll probably have some realy good ones.
- Consider a presence outside h2g2. Even the most trusting person should be aware that h2g2 may not be around forever. The site outage caused before the site merged with BBC Online really brought that home to many. Since many groups spawn longterm friendships and collaborations, it is worthwhile to consider whether members should have a way to find each other if h2g2 goes down again someday. Some possibilities include setting up an email group and creating a sister homepage outside h2g2.
- Don't overextend yourself. If you won't be able to do even basic updates in the future, you might reconsider whether you should start the group at all. And if members request that the group begin new activities that need a lot of administrative work, don't make promises to accomodate them that you can't keep. It's better to be honest about what you can and can't do.
- Get help. If someone does ask that you start a large project, ask whether they would be willing to take on responsibility for the project themselves. For that matter, I highly recommend asking the group at large whether anyone would be willing to co-own the group's pages. Preferably, you want someone with HTML or GuideML skills who won't require a great deal of training. The advantage to multiple page owners is that if you leave h2g2 for any reason, the group will continue to thrive without you.
As a final note, I should mention that many of those running Community groups and clubs don't do all of the above. Not all of my tips are useful in every case, and most require extra work. In a few cases, the club's originator simply isn't with h2g2 anymore. If you have joined (or want to join) a group that seems to be floundering, don't be afraid to step forward and pick up the slack. Most active owners are more than happy to receive help. For those who are no longer here, you might try looking on their homepage for an email address or instant messaging number. Perhaps you can contact them about picking up group ownership in their absence.
The Next View
Next time, this column will link to an online poll I'm working on. I've heard a lot of opinions pro and con lately about the quality of entries since we returned from Rupert1. Some people say the quality of Edited Guid Entries went down for a while, while others counter that more entries than ever have been lengthy and complete. Next week, you'll have the perfect chance to weigh in with your own personal opinion.
Written by Fragilis the Melodical.
Feel free to check out my past columns.
