h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is vintage edited guide material. It is factual, well researched, competently written, but yet remains a load of rubbish. It is without even a trace of artistic merit, and is of strictly limited interest to the general reader.
My wish for the new year is that we be released from the grip that a sub-section of opinion has on our guide and get back to where the founder of it wanted us to be.
Sincerely,
Gaston

I guess this one will be more according to your taste:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585&thread=76493&skip=520&show=20#p1095259

nice setting of the atmosphere, fine lyrics, and all you ever may want to dream of in a piece of writing.

Assuming that you're not the person to read instructions and small print, I won't elaborate on what the Edited Guide (which is a PART of h2g2) is aiming at.

Yours
Bossel

Hello Bossel,
Thanks for the reference. I won't comment.
It isn't so much that I have difficulty reading the small print as
that I have a problem in interpreting and understanding it. What attracted me first to H2G2 were the words "creative writing" and "writing about what you know" and being given as perfect examples of people who did that: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Rupert Brooke, and Bob Dylan. One doesn't have to write fiction to be creative but...
You've been very kind to me in trying to help me and I very much doubt that you'd have gone to the trouble if my difficulties were attached to posting articles such as the one which I complained about.
Happy Christmas,
Gaston

I think it's quite a fascinating topic, and more relevant than many others in the Guide. There are now so many Guide Entries on such a variety of subjects that I am sure you can find some which would be more to your taste.

I think DNA gave us quite a lot of scope as to what should actually go into the Guide, and there are already many articles of greater or lesser merit on medical subjects. Many cover diseases which are lesser known, and have brought several fellow-sufferers together.

There was a researcher once who took umbrage at the fact that there was a call for contributions on the front page (or maybe it was a new entry that day, not sure now, it was over a year ago) ... anyway, the subject was "Ginger Biscuits".

The conversation on this subject (The thread was entitled "This site is trite crap") was extremely lively and said much the same as you are aiming at here. The researcher who had objected at first calmed down after a while and continued to hang around right through Rupert. Don't think he's about any more - at least not under the original Nick, he isn't. By his very postings he upheld the spirit of the guide, and his writing style fitted also admirably. It was most enjoyable conversing with him, and, although many people flamed him at the time, it is my opinion that important to stir things up a bit and to point out to the Community when it's getting into a rut.

Please give some more comments about what you expect from the Guide, post them in the Community Feedback pages, make your point heard. You can influence what goes into the guide, but, in case you are new, please have a good look around first and see if there isn't a good deal to your taste. The more discerning and critical Researchers we have, the better.

Hello Trillian's child,
Thanks for your comments, they make very sensible reading.
I have a science degree and one of my subjects was physiology so my using the word 'rubbish' was in the context of the article being in H2G2, and not about the subject. Anyone who needs to know anything about anatomy or physiology will find every book they need in a good library.
I see from your homepage that you live in Germany and wonder if you speak German now as your first language. I use French so much that when I'm asked for an English word that I'd use normally maybe only once or twice a year, I take quite a bit of time to bring it into my head. It can be embarassing, especially in teaching!
I hope you have a nice Christmas,
Regards,
Gaston

Yes - I know the feeling, although for the sake of my children and for my own sanity and sense of identity, I try and keep my English as proficient as possible. Fortunately, I don't have to teach it, but do have quite a bit of translating to do.

My main sources of stimulation in English are found on the British English thread (follow conversation on my home page - you will be very welcome. You must meet Spliff!) and reading.

Nearly all the information that is contained in the guide is also obtainable elsewhere on the web or from books. It doesn't even claim to be impartial - or even correct - information. But I find entries on such diverse subjects as are to be seen on H2G2 gives much food for thought - and if you want to go deeper, you have a few key words from an entry to start you off.

In other words, exactly in the spirit of the original guide for which Ford Prefect was writing.

So - now you just run along and browse around and try a few words in the "Search " bar. You'll soon find you can't resist writing some entries of your own.!

Am now off to check your home page, because, rather rudely, I haven't yet.

To return to your original question Gaston:

When I wrote the entry it was a pure gap-filler exercise-if h2g2 truly is a guide to everything, then there must be something on poo... which there wasn't when I hit the search button.

It is not how I write all my entries, just the medical ones unfortunately... I am more comfortable writing tennis/sports bios and the japes of drunken students, because it gives me a chance to flex the creative typing-fingers if you will, but given the subject matter of crap, I did not want to make it sound too trivial (as it is important) or indeed far too light-hearted (as it is a serious topic), yet realise the taboo and the use of faeces in a humourous bent (cf. Red Dwarf).

... or indeed, I could give up writing for h2g2 and no more entries of this kind will be produced

Stay ,
WD

Hello Witty Ditty,

I am now grateful to H2G2 for their love of gap-filling factual
entries because it has led me to your and your friend Caper Plip's sites.
There is enough imagination there alone to justify the campaign to have some rules changed.
Congratulations and I withdraw my remark about 'rubbish'.
Best wishes for 2002,
Gaston

Hi every one - Happy New Year.

I meant to say at the time that I think you could add a few notes about which illnesses diarrhoea is a symptom of. I may have done this somewhere, so sorry if I'm repeating myself. For example, I think Crohn's disease consists largely of long and painful bouts of diarrhoea and extreme weight loss. If this is taking the subject too far, and if it's not covered already (sorry, haven't checked the entry again for a while now) it may be important to mention that one should drink lots of liquid if you have diarrhoea, as it dehydrates you.

Whoops - you do go into the dehydration part in quite some detail. Sorry. But I would still welcome the diseases which diarrhoea could be a sign of.

Having had three kids and changed more nappies than my grandparents have had hot dinners, I must apologise that I am quite intrigued by this subject and am quite pragmatic about it. You don't describe the first stools of a new born - a soft yellow, sweet smelling substance, somewhat like mustard in design. If the child is solely breast-fed for the first weeks of life, the stools continue to be quite pleasant in appearance and smell.

Nuff said, I think

Hello Trillian's child,

I'm intrigued; why on earth would you welcome the diseases that diarrohea is a sign of?
Regards, Gaston

You know what I meant - it would be relevant information. Also what constipation can be a sign of.

It's all right for you, you physiologist you, you might know it. I just find the subject interesting, but I'm not fascinated to perversion.

In fact I'm looking forward to some more conversations with you on other subjects.