Fellow denizens of h2g2, you may be unsurprised to see a Press Release of the rapidly approaching h2g2 UnderGuide. For those who don't know, the UG is a form of alternative guide giving home to exceptional entries outside of the Edited Guide's Guidelines. Of course this idea is very familiar. Agg/Gag/CAC has
done this, along with The Post, Fiction Central and most recently the Spaced Out Guide.

The UG is progressing quickly. We are already in the Alternative
Writing Workshop and are keeping it active. Now, we have fifteen volunteers, called miners who are helping with commenting on the entries in the AWW. However, the UnderGuide still needs your help.

There are two ways to help the UG. Directly in becoming a miner or gem polisher and indirectly by writing entries for the AWW and commenting on them. The miners have a few imporant jobs. They serve as the scout and comment on the AWW entries. The Gem Polishers serve as the sub editors, fixing spelling errors and slightly tweaking entries here and there. Join quickly and be in the glorious ranks of the original miners.

If this isn't what you are looking for, you can contribute entries into the AWW. This is the most important factor of our scheme. If you don't help add entries for us, then we don't exist. The UnderGuide is intended to showcase exceptional writing: this may be first person travel-writing; personal reminiscences of someone famous or infamous; theorising on the nature of life, the universe and everything, etc. We will consider poetry, fiction, personal experiences or just about anything that isn't suitable for the Edited Guide. The quality standards are particularly high, but the only formal guidelines are as follows-

1. It can't be suitable for the EG
2. It must adhere to the House Rules
3. It must be original.

So yes, the guidelines are fairly obvious and not very restrictive. In fact, the UnderGuidelines have 79% fewer rules than the Writing Guidelines for the EG.

So what is different about the UG from the Post or CAC? For one thing, entries are probably going to appear on the front page. For another, The Post tends to use timely entries, cartoons or columns. The UnderGuide can't accept these. CAC also uses some other items
that the UG can't accept, such as games or a theme of entries. With UG
we're finding diamonds in the rough and running them through a system
to polish them. CAC occasionally brushes off the mud, but does no
real polishing, expecting for allowing readers to see the diamond in
raw form¹.

Please continue to submit columns, cartoons and features to the Post and the CAC, as we don't want to infringe on our elders. Though to be clear, the UnderGuide can accept an entry that has appeared in the Post or CAC. For the most part though, the UG will try to use new entries.

Though you might not have heard much about it for a few months, the UG is still very much alive. We have Italic support and a steady
flow of AWW entries. These are our most important goals. Right now, we are electing two editors. We promise to have another press release and
progress report when they are brought to office.

To finish up, here we present your h2g2 UnderGuide founding
miners² of the movement.

• a broad³ called Ben - articulate anarchist of
  the movement.
• Subcom.Deidzoeb - The first miner
• GTBacchus - A voice of reason
• Waz - the miner who restarted the UG
• Friendlywithteeth - who posts in every AWW thread.
• Spiff - Who kept the flame burning in the AWW for months, though it
  must have seemed like years.
• Sprout - the modest, reasonable miner who brings us gems deeply buried in the hitherland of h2g2 to the daylight of the UnderGuide.
• Jodan -whose patience and enthusiasm remained high throughout the lean times and the good time. And because every other post is his
• Vercingetorix - whose name is hard to spell and is very enthusiastic
• Sir Mort - Mort deals with the tedium⁴ so we don't have to
• Spook- Insane enthusiastic visionary
• Kiltedjedi - whose dedication and commitment to debate and the AWW has really helped keep the UG alive.

Oh, and if you still have any questions, post below and they will be
answered. Probably.

Jodan
Deidzoeb
Ben

26.06.03 Front Page

Back Issue Page

¹According to ~jwf~ 'With CAC, there is a (fear)/(realisation) that too much organization and processing (will)/(can) hamper creativity, so we try to leave the process very anarchic'²Miners that have demonstrated commitment to the UG³Though she will always be known and loved as 'girl' ⁴The 'update' spamming