The Underguide - Good or Bad?
Created | Updated Aug 22, 2003
Introduction
The Underguide (UG) - the upcoming controlling power of fiction on h2g2, yet does it really benefit the community? Is there a better way for Alternative Writing to be run on h2g2? This entry will attempt to answer those questions.
Pros and Cons
Let us first look at the pros and cons of the Underguide, as that will immediately give us an idea of it's effect on the community:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Entries in AWW commented on | Entries commented on by similar people, community not getting into the AWW |
| Entries receive official status | Entries need no skill of writing or work to gain status, but can simply be written thoughts |
| Entries receive front page exposure | Other Alternative Writing Schemes not taken into due consideration |
| AWW page is re-done | UG volunteers act as if they control the review forum, which is official a pond of entries for ALL Alternative Writing groups to fish in |
| AWW page will contain a UG focus that takes away from other groups | |
| Entries begin to receive multiple exposures | |
| Entries in AWW start receiving judgement of quality for the UG | |
| The UG requires changes to the h2g2 website |
From that list it certainly looks like the Underguide is a bad idea, there are significantly more Cons, than Pros. If you have any Pros or Cons to add to this list, please post below.
Other Options
If the Underguide is not a good idea, then we must consider the other options, such as:
- The Post - The Post is h2g2's one and only newspaper that provide Alternative Writing with the exposure people like, doesn't require any technical website changes, is running effectively right now, and is read by a large proportion of the community. This would be one of the best places to submit well written, interesting entries on any subject.
- AGG/GAG/CAC - This group features entries in a column in The Post. It doesn't provide as much exposure, yet it is great place to have your entries in progress shown in their rough form, perhaps giving people a taster of what will eventually appear in The Post.
- Spaced Out Guide (SOG) - The SOG is somewhere for every entry to be seen. So if your entry isn't up to scratch for The Post, you're not bothered about submitting it to the CAC and you're not bothered about working on your entry, you just enjoy writing humourous articles then the SOG is for you. It accepts all entries, no matter what the length or quality is. If you just want to have your entry become a part of something that in the future will become a great resource of entries, then submit it here.
So, there are these 3 groups already in operation and the UG has been in talk for months and is yet to be start working. What is the UG needed for? Do we really need h2g2 to become more complicated? Do 2 new volunteer schemes need to be created to cope with Alternative Writing?
Solution/Conclusion
I don't think an UG is needed. The AWW is nurtured for entries, and all 3 Alternative Writing groups can fish entries from there. A simple method of requesting moves from the Editors once an entry is accepted can be set up on a page, the AWW page can be re-done with good information on all 3 groups, and this can be set-up extremely quickly and would solve h2g2's Alternative Writing problems.
So, why do we need the UG again?
Disclaimer
Although I may personally have problems with the certain attitudes of certain UG Volunteers, this entry is not directed at them in any way, but at the scheme itself which seems to be accepted as 'The Best Way' by the Editors who have not looked at other ways of dealing with Alternative Writing but have gone with the first idea that a few researchers were behind. I was, at the time, one of them, but left the UG when i was not able to obtain a position of power due to my fight for the best of h2g2 being unpopular, and I left the UG to continue on it's downfall of becoming a controlling 'we are right' scheme.
People, please talk about this entry at the bottom of this page, and please put your support behind my 'proposal' in this entry of forgetting the UG altogether and pushing the already working schemes.
Thank you for reading this entry.
