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

... but I can help those who have.

I’m a Technical Author/Editor, so I’m used to checking that information is presented clearly, logically and consistently.

I also have a reasonable eye for errors. For example, in A293221, Rule no. 1 refers to Newcastle-under-Lyrne instead of Newcastle-under-Lyme. (I see you’ve fixed the “quit possible” in the “What do the Sub-editors do?” entry.)

It would be sooo good to work on something other than software user's guides. Please may I be a sub-editor?

R2B2

While I was waiting for a reply, I had a look at Sub's GuideML (A299496) and found the following. I guess I should really have started a conversation for that entry, but I thought this might add weight to my volunteering :~)

A. Typos

1. " tags behave as a forced line break which can particularly handy when quoting poetry or song lyrics:"
- should read: ...which can be particularly handy...

2. Under Tags: "Note that that the mini-heading is followed by a hyphen."
- "that" is duplicated

3. In the Tables section: "To illustrate come of these points, here's a more complex table:"
- To illustrate some...

4. Under Tags: "For more information on see the Sub-editor's Style Guide and the Approved Guide Entry on the subject of footnotes."
- For more information, see...

5. Tags: "The kind of text that would benefit from tags would be the sort of zig zags all over the page, or like this:"
- ...the sort that zig zags ..."

6. and Tags: The heading says "<SUP&gt"
- missing semicolon.

7. Under "Tags We Don't Use": "The only example that's come up recently which was approved was the The Drake Equation ..."
- ... was The Drake Equation ...

8. Under "Entries that Break the Rules": "The Addiction Clinc"
- Clinic

B. Content and Structure
1. What is GuideML?: "In a nutshell, GuideML is a tag-based system that enables you to change the look of text in an entry, and to change its layout."
- One of the big things that is plugged about XML is that it is all about the structure of a document, not the look or layout...

2. A Few Things to Bear in Mind...: "... but thinking in terms of markup rather than layout is the best approach."
- If anything in the "What is" section is changed as a result of B1, then "markup" here would need to be changed to "structure".

3. The Tables section - The two paragraphs starting "Next we create..." and "Rows are created..."
- The first para says, "The syntax for this header row is the same as the other rows in the table except is used instead of ...", but using is not described till the following para. I'd suggest changing these paras to something like:

>>>
The table's rows are created one after the other, with each row enclosed by a - pair. For each row we have to create each cell in that row, from left to right.

The first row contains the header of the table, which is normally displayed in bold. The contents of each header cell are enclosed by a - pair. For normal rows, the cell contents appear inside a - pair. And that's it: look at the GuideML and you'll see how the three rows are defined, each with three cells along the row.
<<<

4. Tags
- Could do with an example. For instance, are "<" and ">" OK inside a section, or do we have to use &lt; and &gt;?

5. Tags refers to "the space-removing aspects of GuideML". These aren't mentioned anywhere else in this entry: there should be a quick description early on.

That's all for now!

R2B2

PS: I'm giving some thought to my home page...

Dear R2B2,

Thanks for pointing out all of those, though A293221 and A299496 aren't our official guidelines (you'll see they're not edited by the h2g2 Editors). They are at A264520 and A395697. Still, I picked up one or two glaring errors, so good job!

We'd be glad to have you on board as a sub, and you've already proved your worth. First, though, it would be a good idea for you to fill in your Personal Space so that the Community can get chatting to you. Next, once you're familiar with the site, take a good look at Peer Review and get involved there. It will give you a valuable insight into the sorts of entries that come up, ones that you'll be editing in the future.

I've added you to my list and hopefully it won't be too long before you're working on entries. See you on site