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

Entry: How To Avoid Being Abducted By Aliens - A22159604
Author: SWL™ No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - U1775547

Umm, this is the Guide to Life, the Universe and *Everything*, right?

Good luck with this one

You expect this to get in the guide???


With all those grammatical errors???




Made me laugh, though (and out loud, at this hour, with kids in bed )

well if no one will play with me on my thread can i play on yours an avoid the aliens too

Come on then, you know this isn't going to get in the EG, and that you should remove it from PR and it will appear on searches and blah blah blah. Dare I ask what point you're trying to make by submitting it?

Umm, there are people that really do believe this kind of thing. If we can have entries on religion, which covers people's beliefs that others are a little credulous about, why not alien abductions and the prevention thereof?

Do we make value judgements on people's religious beliefs?

The answer to that is fairly obvious. Where large numbers of people share similar beliefs, one could argue that the belief itself becomes part of Life and, whether it is right or wrong, it becomes significant enough to be mentioned as part of the Guide. I personally would have objection to an EG Entry that is actually based on people's beliefs regarding alien abduction, as long as the Entry explained the belief without seeking to overtly convince people that it was the absolute truth. I would apply those criteria to any Entry based on a 'mass' belief.

This is quite different to individual belief. If a few friends decided that they would start a religion based on wearing odd socks, I would not consider that suitable for the EG. It has an entirely negligible impact on the overwhelming majority of our six billion lives. If we were to take Christianity, however, it has a much larger impact and is therefore suitable.

The same principle allows us to write about people in the public eye and not our own families (who few other people have heard of, significant as they may be to us), about songs by the Beatles but not the one I wrote when I was 18, or about Anne Frank's house but not our own.

I don't consider whether the 'ThoughTfer Titfer' is a credible idea or not. I judge its impact on the world and whether or not the Entry has a neutral voice. I do not think that it is written from an 'observing' perspective, nor do I believe that anyone but you has ever considered making one, so I do not think this is suitable for the Edited Guide. It fails both tests we are expected to make as Scouts.

I am an atheist, and believe wholeheartedly that religion is both wrong and a negative impact on our lives. I feel the same way about Roman Abramovich, the monarchy and nuclear bombs, but I cannot deny that they are significant in terms of 'Life', though.

'I personally would have objection to an EG Entry...'

=>

'I personally would have NO objection to an EG Entry...'

Though I'm sure you realised that

wow I see what you mean

Regarding the 'ThoughTfer Titfer' quite some time ago here in Perth there was a story done on our current affairs program about a group of people interviewed about their religious beliefs part of which meant they sat around in their meetings wearing tin foil on their heads to stop their thougths being read..... these people genuinely believed one that people could read their thoughts via satellite from outerspace and second that there were beings out their actually interested in what it was they were thinking .....meanwhile someone at the news desk thought that this was worthy enough to put on the evening news for a population of 2 million .....what is the magic number one needs to reach before an entry makes it to h2g2

Numbers? You actually want a line to be drawn? That's clearly impossible; we have to judge on a case-by-case basis.

Search Google for a ThoughTfer - this is what you get: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=xId&q=ThoughTfer&btnG=Search&meta=

This fails the 'does it affect anyone?' test. If two million people believed it and regularly wore the things, it would be suitable in my view. The fact that two million people may have watched a 'quirky' news clip about it does not make it relevant to anyone.


'Aliens may choose their subjects for investigation by telepathy, or reading minds.'

This fails the 'neutrality' test, as do a large number of the rest of the sentences in the Entry. 'Titfer wearers believe that aliens may...' would be acceptable, though it still wouldn't be a significant enough belief system to make it suitable, as I've already explained.


It's entirely useless having a go at the Scouts about this, anyway. We pick according to the Writing Guidelines, so you can debate all you like here, but it ain't getting picked. If you want to change the Guide and how we select Entries, talk to the Editors at Editorial Feedback. If someone could just crown the conversation by a mention of elitism or liberal values, we could have yet another one of those interminably dull discussions that helps no-one whatsoever. I personally have far better things to do...

well I guess that puts me in my place

It shouldn't be in PR, but with polishing it could well find a home in the Underguide.

Noggin

Thanks Skankyrich, for taking the time to put the Scouts POV on this.

In a way this was an attempt to find the boundaries. The frivolity in the piece arises from being a little, ah, refreshed when I wrote it. I could certainly write an objective piece on the subject with some subtle lampooning, which I would be prepared to defend and debate the suitability of, but this piece is not one I'd really want to make a stand on.

It's just the height of silliness. After all, who ever heard of the Guardian being associated with conscious thought?

Hmm, the UnderGuide you say? Curious, I am.

I suspected there was a little 'refreshment' in this from the time it was submitted. I must confess that by my second posting, I was a little less thirsty than I was when I posted the first...

Glad to be of assistance, anyway, and with your next attempt. It's always good to read a bit of boundary-pushing - what's PR without a bit of friendly debate?

Who says I'm unreasonable, argumentative and can't take a bit of criticism?

No-one (to your face)

You're asking the wrong person about being reasonable, SWL. I'm part of the self-supporting clique that helps to keep users of this site in their place, and therefore seek only to preserve the status quo. Nothing personal, but you know how We feel about pesky free-thinkers

Ooh, I've heard about you lot.


Where's me helmet