Random Ramblings
Created | Updated May 31, 2012
More than a fortnight has gone since I last sat down to write something for the Post. Never a quiet minute on hootoo; just when you think everything is slow, something exciting happens. Hootoo has a new baby, Jennifer Grace, the daughter of fords and Dr. E Vibenstein. Milly, the daughter of Unconformity and Researcher PSG celebrated her first birthday. Congratulations to both families!
On Saturday the week before, my h2g2 t-shirt and the h2g2 button badges arrived, which I got for taking up one of the 'Editors' T-Shirt Challenge'. That was very exciting, and it only took from Tuesday to Saturday for the post to arrive.
And the next thing I read in various journals is, that we don't have e nough entries in the queue for the Front Page. But how do we reach those people who haven't written an entry yet? What keeps people from contributing?
I believe the reasons are manyfold. I remember very well the first time I got aware that everybody could write an entry, and that it wasn't limited to a selected few. I don't remember exactly what I thought before that, I know that I had not really an idea about this aspect of the guide when I joined here nearly four years ago. What I do remember though, is that I thought: 'Oh, there's nothing left you can write about, there already are entries on everything.' Wrong! There are so many subjects we don't have edited entries about, it's amazing. I never thought I would write an entry at all, let alone several. But once I had written my first entry, I was lost. I know I'm not the only one who is addicted to researching and to Peer Review, I know several others who are. It is the actual writing of the entry which is what is most difficult for me. I'm not a gifted writer and deciding what to include and what to leave out, as well as bringing it all into some logical order, plus trying to write it in colloquial English is very hard work for me. But then most of you are native speakers, so should be much better off than me as far as the language is concerned.
Really, you should write an entry, especially if you haven't done so yet. If you don't know what about, why not go and have a look at the Flea Market or the aforementioned 'challenge h2g2' page? While researching for my latest entry, I found that I missed all sorts of entries in the edited guide, and once my current entry doesn't keep me that busy, I may start research on a few of those I missed this time. I'm sure there will be something you miss in the edited guide, so why don't you go and write an entry about it? The only thing you should do before getting started is: make sure you read the writing guidelines for writing for the Edited Guide.
