The alleged purpose of AGG/GAG is to publicize the best of the unedited guide. But the cynical explanation is that we just wanted to play at being Editors. We wanted the kind of glory the Editors get, because we knew there was some good material falling outside the scope of the Edited Guide.

The thing that excites me about this possibility is not that I got to take part in it, but that the tools given us for building the Edited Guide can be misused for all kinds of other purposes, even without breaking House Rules. Anyone can easily write, collect and promote articles with the tones or topics or worldviews they prefer. Even if it never gets anywhere near the Edited Guide or even Peer Review, you could get lots of people reading it. A group with enthusiastic grassroots support could become popular enough to compete with the Edited Guide. For example, who would have guessed that the Thingites page or A579684 could become some of the most popular pages in h2g2?

It's not that I want the Edited Guide to be overthrown or diminished by areas that spontaneously become more popular. It's just astonishing to think that you could be the one overshadowing the Edited Guide.

I know, the stiff competition of AGG/GAG never induced a shiver in any of the h2g2 staff. Still, in some ways, it feels like we're standing on top of the world, even if we're really just teetering on top of a 15 centimeter globe that's been discarded from a classroom because it shows outdated countries like "Yugoslavia" and "Rhodesia" and, oh, I don't know, "Canada."