This page is the original 'Request for Comments' (RFC) about the idea of the 'Ask h2g2' Archives.

The Proposal

The 'Ask h2g2 Archivist' will be subscribed to all of the conversations in the 'Ask h2g2' forum. Any questions that are deemed to have received useful and full answers will, once the thread has come to a logical conclusion, be written up into the 'Ask h2g2' Archives. A link to the archived question will be posted to the thread, in this format:

This question and the answer/s it has received has been archived in the 'Ask h2g2' Archives under the category <category>:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Axxxxxx#jumptolink


Thankyou to all those who contributed. If you would like to suggest any additions or correct any errors, please leave a message on the relevant forum.

The question and its answers will be placed in the category deemed most suitible. If no relevant category exists, one will be created. To keep things simple, there will be no sub-categories.

The question and its answers will be archived in this format:

Question¹: Question² (Asked by Researcher) (linked to their home page).

Answer:

Answers to the question.

The anwers to the question should be written in standard Edited Guide format, ie. in third person, using lists and blockquotes where necessary. For an example, please read the Health entry.

The Archivist

The Ask h2g2 Archivist is set up as a seperate identity. If this idea is welcomed, and the community would like to have it kept up to date, some system of volunteers to do the archiving could be worked out, with maybe a team of people sharing the password and discussing what to archive and who is doing what on a Yahoogroups mailing list.

Discussion Points

Everything in this proposal is put up for comments and discussion, but some points in particular I would like comments on.

How should researchers contributing to the answers be credited? Should they be given a link in the text, a writing credit for the page, or should it be dependant on the size of the contribution?

Who will maintain the archives? (see section above)

How would the Ask h2g2 archives fit in with the Edited Guide, the World of h2g2 Categorisation system and the help pages. Should the archives be linked to from the 'ask h2g2' page? How official should the archives be?