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

On newspapers I have worked on, if the sub could not make sense out of, or otherwise had a problem with, an article he/she gave it back to the reporter who had submitted it and explained to the person what was bugging them.

The reporter then rewrote the article and resubmitted it.

The conversation usually went a bit like this.

"Hey Max/Maxine, this is utter crap"
"I was in a hurry to get to the pub"

Maybe this process could be introduced to h2g2 for use on articles which "nearly" come up to scratch.

Talking to a few h2g2 subs recently it appears standards are improving. A lot of early stuff myself and others posted was opinion/fiction which is not wanted.

Okay, I have another (which after getting some sleep didn't bother me nearly as much as when I first discovered it in my email ).



"An interesting article. It doesn't actually say where Hillbillies are from in a factual way. I am not American so know little about Hillbillies - and whilst they do sound like an interesting sub-group I still find myself left with unanswered questions. The writing guidelines ask Researchers to avoid humanoid/spacey references which ought to be removed.


Would this offend anyone who lived in this area of America? I am not
sure, but it is worth consideration.

I am sorry to reject something that has obviously been carefully worked on. If amendments were made it has the potential to be a good Offical entry. So well done that mouse and thank you for being such a valuable member of the community."



I really wish I -did- know who subbed this one. I'd like to discuss a few things before I rework it (which I -will- do as soon as I get some RL glitches worked out).

Ahem........how long do we have to wait for a rejection? I submitted some stuff about 8 weeks ago....has it got lost in a chronosynclastic infundibulum, is it too awful even for a rejection slip, or may there yet be some hope?
Compliments of the season -
smerus

Smerus, the longest I have waited for rejection was 17 weeks. I have had one accepted in 7 weeks. The average wait at the moment, I believe, is about 10 weeks.

Sometimes your article may be incorporated with another one on the same subject. This happened to one of mine a week after I submitted it.

I submitted one(my first) 23 weeks ago. I am sure it will be rejected, as I didn't know enough to see if anyone else had done one on the subject. No word yet *sigh*

Both Ginger the Feisty and I have asked about this problem - we each have articles older than 20 weeks that we are still waiting on, yet we've had much younger articles (12-14 weeks) already accepted. Peta is looking into things for us........

After reading some of the rejection note I realized that an entry I submitted really fell into the category of funny but not informative. So I unsubmitted it.

The thing is, we don't really have a way of checking -when- we submitted the article, which would be a nice suggestion for the index of summitted articles.. Hmm... maybe a trip to Jim's page is in order...

Good point Nonnie! Although you can keep track easier if you submit within a few days of creating the page

Most of the time I know, even as I write it, whether I'm going to submit it or not, and do so right after adding the page. But sometimes (uhm.. I have one of these, too *blush*) you start a page, get interrupted by one thing or another or just plain lose your train of thought, and never quite get back to finishing it. When/if you eventually do, then sometimes it's been quite a while since the creation date when you submit. These are the times that little "date submitted" would come in handy.

I put the suggestion up to Jim, as mentioned, but either he missed it or I missed his reply or.. well..

For "GuideML/HTML Feature Overload" ( http://www.h2g2.com/A130023 ) I received the following


"I have no choice but to reject this on account of the tragedy it caused. The new Assistant Editor, Sam Semple, was so taken aback by the pulsing, flashing screen, that it brought on a severe fit, followed by bouts of nausea. Dr Jack came to his aid only to catch a glimpse of the screen; he jumped back, and fell down the stairs. He's currently in the X-ray dept of the local hospital. Sam has recovered to some extent. The Doctors say that the psychological problems should have no long term effect. So, as much as we appreciate your efforts, the entry does in fact prove a very valid point - we're not yet sick enough to give it Approved Guide Entry status. Do feel free to submit some more entries, just make them less pukey..."


A rejection story almost worthy of being a Guide entry on its own

;^)#

ooops this got posted up there in the middle somewhere - to make it easier to find here it is again
For "GuideML/HTML Feature Overload" ( http://www.h2g2.com/A130023 ) I received the following


"I have no choice but to reject this on account of the tragedy it caused. The new Assistant Editor, Sam Semple, was so taken aback by the pulsing, flashing screen, that it brought on a severe fit, followed by bouts of nausea. Dr Jack came to his aid only to catch a glimpse of the screen; he jumped back, and fell down the stairs. He's currently in the X-ray dept of the local hospital. Sam has recovered to some extent. The Doctors say that the psychological problems should have no long term effect. So, as much as we appreciate your efforts, the entry does in fact prove a very valid point - we're not yet sick enough to give it Approved Guide Entry status. Do feel free to submit some more entries, just make them less pukey..."


A rejection story almost worthy of being a Guide entry on its own

;^)#

That's great! I love that rejection...shows they put as much effort into rejecting you as you put into crafting it.

I'm leery of submitting my articles now before they're ready. I made my article on American Football, and submitted it knowing I wanted to add some other things, but they'd slipped my mind at the time. I didn't worry too much about it, and moved on to other things, because I assumed it would be months before it crossed a sub-ed's desk. Just a couple weeks later, it gets pulled as part of the Football Grande article. I managed to get one of the bits added after the fact, but the other point I was going to make must live forever in obscurity.

We try our best

Crafting may be too strong a word for the Vomit-O-Matic page


;^)#

*sits twiddling th..erm.. tail and listens bemusedly, only half wondering what all the fuss is about *

After all.. it's only a single paragraph<?> of admittedly large white letters.

You seem to be missing out on the background graphic & sound

;^)#

Nonnie, didn't your browzer pick up the flashing lights and loud music

It will be interesting what reception my new yarn "Guidleines for writers and sub editors at h2g2" gets.

It lives at http://www.h2g2.com/A258112

Nope. I had to peek at those separately.

Nice page, btw. *marks it down in list of links for newbies*