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

Great Entry! (Although you don't mention that it's perfectly possible to teach English as a foreign language without any form of qualification.... as many do.)

'You want get a job' You want to get a job

'around £1000.' around £1,000.

'–1000 words' –1,000 words

'not considered as tantamount to' not considered tantamount to

Heyup! Thanks for commenting.

TBH, I rather hoped I had made my feelings on unqualified teaching clear in the entry already (it's ripping off the students, even if you do not charge much for your services, so don't do it). Hence my refusal to go into further detail.

*sigh* for the typos, but thanks for pointing them out. Should I contact Editorial Feedback or will you, or is there another option?

I'm really pleased to see that you are still 'attached' to the Entry. One of my strongest criticisms of the system is that it doesn't, at the very least, insist that authors automatically be made aware of any conversations that might require amendments to their Entry.

"(it's ripping off the students, even if you do not charge much for your services, so don't do it)"

That ain't necessarily so. One doesn't need total command of a second language either to speak it with ease, or to pass university entrance exams, or most job proficiency tests. I've never ripped off a student.... although there was one teenage lad who ripped his mother off by skipping the occasional lesson and pocketing the proceeds...



Ps Please contact Editorial Feedback - they don't bite.

Typos can be hard to spot..........

Here's one I missed earlier:

Full-time is correctly spelt twice, but there's one instance of 'fulltime'.

Well, however good a person is as a teacher, they would be better with training/ ongoing professional development. I don't think it's fair to students, given that most students' reasons for learning English are quite high stakes, to be anything less than the best teacher possible. Hence my position on this matter. We are going to have to agree to disagree here because I am quite intransigent on this one.

But I shall certainly alert the gang to the typos.

Thanks for the eagle eyes Rudest Elf We've corrected those typos now

As regards authors being made aware of any conversations that might require amendments to their Entry, we agree that this is highly desirable. As part of their task, our sub-editors are asked to remind authors to subscribe to the Approved Entry . As Solnushka picked up your post quickly, I assume that was done in this case. Still, we'll jog the memory of our volunteer subs to ensure it's not forgotten.

Thanks again
The h2g2 Editors

Thank you, Eds. That's good to know.

Now, when do you plan to start removing all of the weakest Entries from the Edited/Approved Guide?

You're welcome

It's a work-in-progress, we will look at and discuss weak entries which are brought to our attention.


h2g2 Guide Editors

So, there's no plan to go through the Guide methodically?

I would provide a list (drawn from my conversations)... if I could reach the oldest ones quickly... in any skin. The only skin to do that is Pliny - but the earliest conversation there is dated April 19, 2010. Can't Pliny go further back than that?

Will fast access to the oldest conversations (in all skins) be an added feature... eventually?

In any event, very many of the earliest Entries are known to be either very short, or not amusing... or both. Surely, transfer to 'Mostly Harmless' is long overdue.

I've probably signalled one or two duds to Editorial Feedback, over the years - I'll see if I can find them.

"Keep the edited Guide up to date and informative is one of our key priorities." Peta's reply to the first EF conversation.

Happy New Year!

And that's where these conversations always end.

Oh dear I'm so sorry, please remember "we" the editors are more than one person and not everyone checks the conversations, we use this account to perform tasks like assigning articles to sub-eds, editing pending entries and selecting scout picks, etc.

Your query would get a much wider audience (rather than where it is currently) if you were to post it at EF as a general query (about Pliny?) including your comments about the earliest articles.

In an ideal world I would love to find the time to go through the Guide rooting them out, but my own personal time here (online) is limited and there's a list of tasks I have to perform just in the weekly programme. We also are desperate for new sub-editors. If you are interested (your knowledge of grammar and spelling has always impressed me) or have any other suggestions please let us know

Galaxy Babe U128652 <--- (quicker response if you contact me directly)
for the h2g2 Editors

Hi GB!

Many thanks for getting back to me.

I've been bleating about the state of the Edited Guide to responsible Researchers for years, but it seems pointless to continue. We don't have the manpower, and it seems we don't have the will to clean up our act.

While Icy's initiative, 'h2g2 Citations: http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A46972182 ', should make us feel proud - closer inspection reveals just how poor many of those Entries are... and many of those Entries link to even worse ones.

Even our most common error messages have typos - how embarrassing is that?! (Reported to EF weeks ago, and shelved.)

I still haven't written even one entry, so I wouldn't be qualified to sub-ed even if I wanted to.

I had been given the power to fix typos without involving the EF folk... but Milla - no doubt following company policy - removed that privilege.

So, dear GB, this is just another rant - no need to respond.

Keep well.