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

Entry: Forest Hill - A3900953
Author: endless_cups_of_tea - U1495187

Hello. FIrst of all, like the site! Im glad this has got momentum! I kept this one short and have looked at other entries on parts of London, eg Putney. I think that I will probably veer towards shorter rather than longer entries. Any helpful ( not caustic - go easy on the newbie!) comments would be helpful

Many thanks,

Endless

For starters, can you change the title to 'Forest Hill, London, UK' so people like me who've never heard of the place know where it is?

Isn't there some sort of a music museum in Forest Hill? I know for sure there's definitely a hill cos I've driven over it many times

Many thanks for posts, will amend entry as stands perhaps, this could be an introductory one to further entries, or make one comprehensive entry. I suppose i have a short concentration span so, more shorter entries would be easier but one entry would prob be of more use to the Guide!

Thanks again!

Starting to see the scope for making a one read entry and keeping the writing focused on what will be perhaps a little subjective, but hopefully accessible guide. For me the best guide books have an opinion and are not drily regurgitating facts. I guess the trick is not to put the reader off with a rant.

What plans do have for this entry? Are you intending to submit it to Peer Review for inclusion in the Edited Guide? If so you might want to look through some Edited entries describing town/cities/places to get a feel for how this sort of thing has been approached. There is a very wide range of styles. Start here C42 and work your way through some continents

If the EG is not your intended destination you can pretty much do what you wnat with the entry because yopu won't have to fit in with the Writing-Guidelines that govern edited entries.

And are you intending this to be a collaborative entry? Because that's what the Collaborative Writing Workshop is for - entries which will be written by several Researchers. If you are simply looking for ideas from other people to include in your entry you place it in the Writing Workshop, although that's a bit like throwing your entry into a black hole - the WW is a bit of a dead end

Is it possible to submit into writing workshop and then put into peer review after ? Sorry if this is question that is dealt with introductory forums. i have read them i promise!

This first one will be a work in progress before submitting for peer review hopefully. Have added a few bits, and put in some bits that might get taken out or moved. Anyway, thanks for the feedback!

It's perfectly possible to put an entry into one of the writing workshops and then move it to PR PR is supposedly meant for entries which the writer feels are finished or nearly finished, although the length of some of the PR threads says that authors sometimes misjudge that, or simply didn't read the instructions first

To be perfectly frank with you, if an entry is a long way from being finished but has the potential to be an Edited Guide entry, I think it's often okay to submit it to PR as long as the writer is prepared to work with the Scouts and other PR regulars who are offering suggestions and trying to improve the entry

Many thanks for the advice! Im getting used to the process. Slowly!. I guess i'll keep it here at the moment cos im playing round with different ideas on how to structure it and the tone of it etc. Hopefully not too dry but not too opinionated and usuable by someone who just wants information not entertainment! Sorry, and please do say if there is somewhere i can go to find this out but, how do i put the formatting in, is this a HTML code thing? I notice that edited entries have them on etc.

Anyway, thanks for all the help

I'm a Scout, it's my job

You can find out about Guide ML - h2g2's own markup language - here <./>GuideML-Clinic</.>. It might seem a bit daunting if you've never done anything like this or know nothing about HTML, but play around with it a bit. Create another entry just for trying out GML - headers, subheaders, blockquotes, links, bold text, italics, pictures (although you're not supposed to put pictures in anything you submit to PR).

Once you think you've got the hang of it try it on your Forest Hill entry. One thing that new GML users often don't realise is that You have to use the paragraph tag text a lot, and the break tag hardly at all. Every single paragraph in an entry submitted to PR needs to be enclosed within a paragraph tag.

And once you've got the hang of GML you can do all sorts of whizz-bang things with your Personal Space

One thing you might find confusing as a GML newbie is the error messages it throws up whne you've forgotten to close a tag, or put the wrong closing tag in, such as 'Bad closing element, expecting '. In an entry with lots of GML tags, that can be pretty confusing for a while, but it's another thing you'll get used to as become more practiced

Oh, and you'll need to change the format of any entry to Guide ML - when you click on 'Edit Entry' and find yourself at the editing page there'll be a couple of radio buttons below the text box that say 'Plain text' and 'Guide ML'. Make sure that the one that says Guide ML is checked.

But it tells you all this in the Guide ML Clinic

Many thanks! Well, they've got a very friendly scout Will give the html a go! have used it once a long time ago, so it should be amusing but im sure i'll get the hang of it!

There are some who would argue with you about my, er... friendliness But I only ever get... unfriendly if someone barges their way into one of the review forums or workshops thinking they know it all, or not having read the instructions, or not prepared to ask how things work

Sounds reasonable enough to me!

Okay, this is still work in progress, but we now have some basic html or whatever in there as well as more writing. Would love to know what peoples think on this etc...

Also getting this error message

Bad closing element P expecting I


Any help would be appreciated

Thanks from

Bad closing elements usually means that there's one too many or one two few of some ml tags - probably or judging from that message.

Great to see an entry on Forest Hill. I used to get taken to the H museum as a kid as a treat - it was (and presumably still is) an awesome place. I don't know how many times we went there, but there was so much variety that we never got bored.

Could be worth adding a link to http://www.horniman.ac.uk/

I'm biased, but I think the H museum deserves its own section and subheader, possibly with a little bit of background about its history. It's one of the main things in FH after all!

"Having seen the museum before and after the extensive refit, I would have to say that they have done a really good job on it. This is also echoed by the Good Museum Guide who gave their Best Museum award last year (2004)."

Could you remive the "I" - all guide entries have to be in the third person. Pehraps also worth removing "last year" and just replacing it with "2004" as this will allow the entry to date a bit better.

I'm wondering whether it's possible to find a slightly stronger ending. - it just seems to fizzle out a bit, and I don't think that the hitchiker's guide reference adds very much to be honest.

Is there anything else in Forest Hill? Are there still a load of antique shops, or am I thinking of somewhere else?

First of all, thanks for the feedback, i definitely will put in some links.

Will remove 'I's and dodgy ending, all in progress at the moment...!

Some more research required on my behalf. But its getting there. Yes, i guess i could write about a few of the other establishments, not just pubs!!

Will keep writing and amending. Many thanks again!

A3900953 - Forest Hill,London,UK

*bursts into the thread in a flurry of excitement*
See Ooj? It's worth hanging around in the CWW because lovely people happen to you.

I'd like to know where the nearest tube station is (if that's relevent) or else where it is in relation to other things I am likely to know.

I'd also like more information on the museums, aquarium and the like

This has great potential well done

Kat

will add to this entry over the next few days! many thanks for all the input

cheers! gtg! work :|

Have added to the entry. Have included some links and a definite ending. Will do some Museum research i think by actually going there. Went there last summer, so i deserve another visit i think. Pls let me know what you think - good or bad, or any little things either. Writing is a real pleasure. I guess the trick half the time is knowing what to leave out!

Anyway, many thanks again!

Endless