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

Are there any areas on h2g2 that cater specifically for researchers who have written guide entries but would like others to proofread / comment on / provide assistance with them before submission? The 'Critique Fun Run' is one example of this, but would it be worth having a forum on the Aces homepage where people could post the URLs of articles they'd like comments on? A number of people on the Aces team (as well as any other interested parties) could then take a look and give advice as and where appropriate. I guess in some ways this overlaps slightly with the role of the Subs, but I'm hoping that if we can support budding researchers in the creation of their guide entries, it'll increase the 'hit rate' of approved guide entries and make the lives of the Sub Editors a little easier. It's certainly something I'd benefit from, anyway

What do people think?

Azimuth

Any time I go to a page, I poke around and read what strikes my fancy. If there's something I see that needs help/improvement I tell the Researcher in question. If I like it a lot, I tell them that too. Isn't that what an interactive Guide is all about?

- X

Sure, but what about Researchers who are specifically interested in improving their writing style in relation to a particular article? They can wait around for people to visit the page of their own accord and read / respond to any comments made, but what happens if they have specific questions about an individual piece that they've written and intend to submit: for instance, whether the facts are correct, whether anyone has anything else to add, whether a joke is actually funny, and ultimately, whether the article is ready for submission.

I'm still of the opinion that h2g2 is very large, and for a lot of people, very confusing, especially when it comes to writing good guide entries for submission. The idea above was simply to provide an easy-to-find support line for those Researchers who wished to make use of it - allowing them to get direct feedback on a particular piece without having to wait around for the natural flow of traffic (which, when we have so many Researchers and so many entries, can take some time).

Azimuth

On a related theme, Gargleblaster posted an article to the Feedback forum, entitled 'Editor-Researcher Communications' - it raises some important points about the whole submission / editing process. Might prove interesting reading to those who haven't seen it already.

http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=615

Azimuth

Azimuth, I have written an "A guide to h2g2 Rejection Slips" article. It contains, amongst other things, hints on getting your articles accepted.

You can find links to it from my home page or the h2g2Post page

Loony

Hey Azimuth, I think you've got a great idea there. My earliest contact with other researchers was in a long-forgotten forum (I think on a Don't Panic page) where people were posting requests for others to read their articles. Of course, back then none of us knew what the editors were looking for (including the editors ), but now that we have a much better feel for the process, this could be very useful.

I had a discussion with Peta along similar lines, about allowing researchers to discuss their rejected articles with the sub-eds. I brought this up again recently in an ace forum:

http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=27584
(Idea No. 5 right below Peta's initial post)

What about a sub-ed clinic, where you can post requests to have an article read, and also discuss rejections with a sub-ed. I'm sure the subs would just *love* that I'm creating more work for them, but they wouldn't have to be the only ones doing the reading and suggesting - anyone on h2g2 could help out.

-TVF

Well that link above obviously just goes in a circle. Just look at the posting called "feedback" in this forum. Sorry.

Try http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=27584&thread=30008

Sorry again.

Hi Azimuth

I have my POST hat on at this time - Looney pointed me in this direction - The h2g2POST offers this service but as yet not advertised it as there is a lot going on but it is a service it will provide.

Goto
http://www.h2g2.com/u54963
and look up the page "the Never ending edit" and put a request on there to proof read your page and Hypoman will organise it for you.
vegiman ACE

Vegi's right. We will be implementing it fully soon. Once we've got the layout and such right. It'd be nice to just stick it staight into a forum around the Never Ending Edit page, but after a little while, well you know how fourms can get, new articles added to the bottom will end up taking so long to load that people will give up. Then you get a newer forum started and you soon end up with a forum called Look At This(3433434), so we're looking to introduce a date stamping and expiring system. It is planned, and would probably be there already if my hangover wasn't so bad

As you said, having it as part of the ACEs may be slipping into Subs territory as it were, I don't think they'd mind, I'm a Sub and I don't. But people may not think that it would be at the ACEs homepage. This is where the POST can come into it's own. As somebody described it as, A One Stop Shop for What's in the Guide. We've already brought the Fun Run, the Rejection Slips and the Interactive Horoscopes under the wing of the POST. A Think Tank type thing is really only a logically progressive step.

It will be there, and hopefully soon

Right then you lucky people

After reading these comments I decided that this was something that you really wanted, and, as I said, it was something that we were intending to incorporate into the Post. So I listened and put it to the top of my 'Get this done you lazy thing!' list. So I've done it. It'll be launched type thing in the next issue of the Post, 13-12-99 and should help.
The way it works is reasonably simple. On the page is a text box containing 'http://www.h2g2.com/P ' and three checkboxes titles 'Proof Reading', 'Fact Checking' and 'Contributions Wanted'. You put the number of the entry you are working on at the end of the link in the and then in tick the check boxes that are appropriate. Each week we'll be setting up a forum from the page, that is dated for the start of that week. When the researcher click the submit button, an entry is made into that forum. The title of the entry will be the sort of help they require, and the comment will be a link to the entry in question.
Researchers who are willing to either proof read, fact check or add to articles can then go along to the most recently dated forum and see what people would like help on.
I agree that we need a universal place where we can all co-ordinate this procedure and I hope that this is the sort of thing you were looking for, and that it is of some use to you.

Yep, Pastey, definitely - this is cool, I can't wait to see it .
Thanks for the prompt attention *bows with profound respect*



*whispers to other ACEs* see? we don't even have to do it ourselves ...

Pastey, an h2g2 legend

Ah, shucks *blush*

Hmmmmm....with all the good feelings in here, I hope I don't spoil the mood!

The first posting to this forum was about creating a place where researchers could advertise their prospective guide articles and other researchers/subs/aces/etc. would provide suggestions, criticisms, and so on. At least, that is the way I read it. Later on it was mentioned that the POST offers this service, in The Never Ending Edit section. So I wandered over there to see what was going on.

What I saw was very confusing, so I asked Hypoman for some information. After a little back-and-forth, I finally understood that the Never Ending Edit is going to help critique and publish articles *about h2g2* rather than articles that will someday be *in h2g2*. A quote from Hypoman:

"What we really want is articles about the 'Guide, not articles FOR the 'Guide. The only articles FOR the 'Guide that we should deal with here should be entrants for a Fun Run."

Seems to me that the POST does not offer the service we had been discussing here.............

.....then again, maybe it does. I just found the "think tank" that pastey mentioned, and that looks more along the lines of what I was expecting.

I think the Never Ending Edit needs a clearer explanation of what it is before it gets posted in the POST.

-TVF

Indeed. All will become clearer as the text around them gets done.

The Never Ending Edit will be for things more along the lines of Post articles. It links to a text box that sends articles straight to me for distribution to our editors.
The Think Tank will be for researchers to notify others of their work and invite them to come along and remark with/help on.

When they get launched properly, it will be explained better, honest

Thanks Pastey - I like to jump the gun

It's not so much jumping the gun though.
I'm glad we're getting this sort of feedback. The Post is there as the community newspaper for the h2g2 community, so we need to know both what the community think of it and want from it. The Think Tank is just one of the many ideas that we have for it. There will be more, including the Never Ending Edit and something we're working on at the moment called the Homepage Starter Kit. I could tell you more, but as Mark Moxon likes to say, "If I did, I'd have to kill you"!!

Great stuff - this is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for implementing it so quickly! I'm hoping the scheme will promote cross-pollination between researchers; I'm certainly looking forward to watching how things unfold

So, just to gather some of those useful resources together, we have:

http://www.h2g2.com/A53209 - Submitting Entries to the Guide
http://www.h2g2.com/A182972 - Guidelines for Sub-Editors
http://www.h2g2.com/P130852 - Field Critic / Critique Fun Run
http://www.h2g2.com/P183250 - Rejection Slips
http://www.h2g2.com/A225073 - The Think Tank

Any more useful writing resources out there?

Azimuth