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

Hi Lucinda and xyroth - good to see some great ideas about the development of the University. A couple of us in house are going to be looking closer at the University and I've passed on your commments.

Also, let's see what happens with your intelligence project, xyroth...

I already have some Uni project stuff in there, will hike it back up the top sometime.

below is a link to a piece that recently went through WW and is now in PR - looking all the better for it.

A773219 - PR thread at F48874?thread=195159#p2186666

This is exactly the way I see the WW being useful.
A satisfied customer!

I've only been on h2g2 for about a month but I submitted an articl to the WW and got some really helpful comments. Now I've put it into Peer Review after it had been bettered by the chaps at the WW. To stages of making an article better is better than just one. The WW should stay.

by the way, although we seem to have got agreement early in this thread to stop using the writing workshop as a halfway house on the way to the flea market, we are still having scouts suggest that it be used that way.

is there any way that one of the italics can send a message to all of the scouts to suggest they stop doing this?

by the way, although we seem to have got agreement early in this thread to stop using the writing workshop as a halfway house on the way to the flea market, we are still having scouts suggest that it be used that way.

is there any way that one of the italics can send a message to all of the scouts to suggest they stop doing this?

by the way, although we seem to have got agreement early in this thread to stop using the writing workshop as a halfway house on the way to the flea market, we are still having scouts suggest that it be used that way.

is there any way that one of the italics can send a message to all of the scouts to suggest they stop doing this?

by the way, although we seem to have got agreement early in this thread to stop using the writing workshop as a halfway house on the way to the flea market, we are still having scouts suggest that it be used that way.

is there any way that one of the italics can send a message to all of the scouts to suggest they stop doing this?

by the way, although we seem to have got agreement early in this thread to stop using the writing workshop as a halfway house on the way to the flea market, we are still having scouts suggest that it be used that way.

is there any way that one of the italics can send a message to all of the scouts to suggest they stop doing this?

Thanks to the repeated department of redundancy department

OK, well I'm on old uesr, long time lurker, and now (thanks to a good bit for free time) frequent flier.
I've begun a Univ. project. I don't have a sub yet, can't contribute to PR and was asking where I could get some preliminary comments. WW appears to be my only choice. Which is fine, I've never used it before, but I will now.

I have been spending a lot of time in PR lately. There's lots of dreck in there. Many posts are from first time users who are writing about things that should not be in the edited guide, or writing in a way that disagrees with the Guidelines for usage. I'm not really talking about a few "I saw the movie. . ." type points. i mean there is a lot of stuff that needs work. New contributors especially who aren't familiar with h2g2-esque writing. If we continue to use PR for basically all new entries, then dumping them SOMEWHERE when they aren't really ready is needed. For the people less familiar with the process WW could be really helpful, if it would be monitored by folks who could help the project along.

This seems to be the bulk of the problem. As mentioned earlier, people who KNOW how the system works will use it the correct way. WW will get Uni stuff and stuff that can't get immediate attention by the author, and PR will get the nearly finished works and the edited guide stuff. We aren't talking about these authors.

These authors and editors and scouts and subs are the hardcore of h2g2. The new users, the infrequent users and the lurkers who are making a first or rare posting to a conversation, or a new article need assistance to find where the proper place for their article is. Often these article BELONG in WW. I think they basically ALL go to PR, but PR moves slowly to get the articles over to WW, even when they might obviously need WW help.

that's just me, and I'm sorry for the length of the post here, but I thought the IDEA of WW was w worthy one,but we need more active traffic through this site.
I'm loathe to suggest a NEW volunteer scheme, or additional banners, but perhaps ACEs and GAs and anybody else that does greetings should mention WW are the "first stop on the way to writing comfortably for the Edited Guide, using Guide ML and developing ewb-based writing skills".

Friar

If the ACEs did that, Friar, it'd increase the number of newbies in the WW, to be sure, but I don't think it'd increase the quality of the help they get there. If anything, I think it could turn people off if ACEs suggest they go there, and they don't get decent feedback as a result. The problem with the Writing Workshop (imo) isn't the number of people there seeking help - it's the number of people providing help: about five.

I think it'd be better to point out Writing-Beginners. That's basically a one-stop-shop for learning to write for h2g2, and it correctly points out 'This Week's Topic' as the best place to start.

-Martin

Good point martin(lucinda).
If we're about to use Scouts/Volunteers/etc. in WW as a meeting place for new contributors as well as the "workshop" it was designed to be it could be used as a "writing lab" where people may contribute works that when they are first using the GuideML, as opposed to writing-beginners, which serves a similar function as an introductoin, but not so much as a writing lab.

I dunno, I'm pretty new to WW, because I've always gone right to PR, but I'll be checking in on WW more, to see if the conversations get going. Of course, if Bels, xyroth, and other common contributors and familiar faces are the only ones who use it, we're right where we started.

How can we get new contributors to recognize WW better?

Friar

if the feedback on university projects is as successfull as the commentry on the intelligence project seems to suggest, then we can not only encourage university projects to use the writing workshop, but encourage the university contributers to provide feedback to other entries as well.

as to the number of people currently giving feedback, a quick survey of those that have provided feedback in the last 24 hours include bels, friar, xyroth, gnomon, bossel, otto fisch, lucrecia and il viaggiatore.

If we can encourage authors who have been helped by the ww to come along and comment as well, then we would be well on the way to bringing it back.

Friar: "How can we get new contributors to recognize WW better?"

I used to be simply prejudiced against it. Without ever going there and getting stuck in, I kept seeing various disparaging comments about it here and there, and when I did go there it just seemed to be full of abandoned litter, so I just ignored it. That was then. But I guess there are lots of people who are similarly prejudiced.

Then there are a bunch of people who are not at all prejudiced, but have taken a long hard look at it, applied their logic to the situation, and want it abolished. It looks as though the italics at one point reckoned that was the way to go, but there seems to have been, if not a reprieve, at least a stay of execution, while it remains on Death Row.

So at the moment the odds are not in its favour, but tides have been known to turn, and I dare say when push comes to shove there will be a reluctance to administer the extreme penalty until other possibilities have been tried out. So there's everything to go for.

There have been some suggestions about raising the profile of the WW. I thought a mention on the Front Page wouldn't be a bad idea. No doubt the italics are considering the whole issue and would welcome more comments.

xyroth's idea about authors who have been helped giving something back sounds great. When we can see that an author is getting help from the WW we can post a suitable plea.

Bels

great idea xyroth!

Also, perhaps some of the folks who contribute to PR would benefit from reading articles in WW too, as many of us swim in both pools, perhaps we should encourage all writers to be readers for both WW and PR.

Friar

don't forget the university projects.

the best plan so far for them is to put them in a surviving writing workshop. if the workshop goes, then we are back to square one with what to do about university entries for improving feedback.

If we can get this to be successfull, and more importantly get the university contributers to frequent the writing workshop, then this should lead to a general improvement.

already we are getting a lot more reviewers dropping by.

Well, if Bels had not pointed this thread out to me I would never have entered. I figured that it was nearly as healthy as Peer Review has been.

Anyway, you're very correct about University.

I'll jump over there tonight and take a look at the activity in the University to see if there is any more support.

Friar

Any danger of a cup of while I'm here?

There's only nettle, dandelion or camomile left.

Who drank all the Assam then

Couldn't tell you about the Assam - haven't seen any around here for quite a while. I was the one who finished the last of the Lung Ching Dragon's Well. Nobody else thought very much of it, but I appreciate the mellow flavour and slightly sweet after-taste, as well as that unusual jade green colour. However, I'm probably biased, because I always think the best China teas come from the Zhejiang province. Your mileage may vary, of course.