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

Congrats on the new entry to the flock J! (the child, not the new UG page...)

I can promise you... sheepish he isn't

I got into this account intending to work on the miners page, but instead I added a section of notes at the bottom of A4183210 because I'm lazy.

Or rather - I'm a big idea kind of person. Leave the real work to the regular folks

Ok, well I couldn't get to sleep tonight, so I decided to tackle another help page I had in mind - UnderGuide jargon. I suggested it in an email to some of y'all (did anyone actually read that email, by the way?)

Only it turned into something... else. Take a look for yourself. A4184516

Jodan

*pokes head out of all the letters, post-its, memos, 'little notes' etc*

Okay so...the general ideas seem to point towards boiling down the existing pages, making sure they all link around (possibly in one of those posh looking bars at the top), making sure the UG badge is liberally splashed around, running B over with a friendly , keeping the miners and polishers sekret!, and congratulating Jodan on purchasing a new sheep

On the 'to mimic or not to mimic' front, I have to agree with Ben and say that if we are close to the subs/scouts pages then it's a good thing. There are perhaps places where we could condense more than them, but as a whole the idea works. I think perhaps the 'what do polishers do?' or whatever it is could do with being linked to a 'Polishing Tutorial' page. That way they can get an idea of what they might be expected to do.

RE the volunteer lists that are in existence. I'd be very happy to organise and keep track of all the polishers, ghost with new ones, see who's doing what etc. I mean I already keep track for this page so it's a short step to keeping track of who's who, what they're up to, making sure that everyone is happy and knows what they're doing etc. How about it? I'd be happy to do the tutorial page too if anyone has ideas for that?

I'm just about to update the polishing tables and some time through the week I'll edit this page to see how we're doing with the boiling down and making into a syrup of all these pages

Kat

Well, why is it a good thing for the scout/subs pages to be the basis for the UG miners/polishers pages? Because it makes us look more official? That was the rationale early on, but I'm now of the opinion that we'd benefit more from making the pages as clear and useful for prospective volunteers as possible. I'm not sure that the five pages each is the best way to do this.

I think I'll have a try at the tutorial page. I have some ideas about it.

It was to make it easier for us to become offical when we were hoping for official status. Of course Petunia came along and scythed through the Italics, and what we got was what we got.

So long as the drafts are kept somewhere, (in 'deleted' pages for example), I am content that the main ones are changed. What is important is that what we have should work.

Ben

Does anybody else use the <!-- --> tags? I used it on a few occasions hiding old pages.

I haven't used it here, but it's a good idea.

Ben

I've used those tags! Then completely forgotten they existed.

I'm skimming backlog or I'll never catch up. If I've missed the point somewhere, or am messing up decisions already made, shout at me will you?

Volunteer lists. There are three. I suggest we keep the UGEds a/c one as it's occasionally useful in finding h2g2 homepages, and scrap the others.

A standard format like "Official UnderGuide Page" is good, as are standard links. Using the word 'Official' sounds a bit like trying too hard - yet I do see the point of doing so .

I'm kind of liking the idea of condensing the volunteer pages, myself... Five feels unwieldy. (I think the Scouts/Subs set of five should be condensed )

A Job Descriptions/Editors Processes page is good too. These things evolve over time. Little things, like including QA comments in mailing the lists to the italics make things easier and quicker for instance, or starting emails to italics a particular way to avoid being junk mailed. I'd be happy to set down the detail of what I've been doing.

Are the 'What Miners/Polishers do' pages the same as processes pages for them? They probably need updating. To be able to direct new volunteers to an Anumber for detailed processes rather than type it all out on yahoo would help a lot.

A jargon page is useful for reference.

Ben, in a QA processes page would you include the sort of thing you posted to the group about what you look for? Because that would be useful to link to when sending new miners down the pit.
Waz

Well, we have the UnderGuidelines for that, but I can copy and paste it out again if you think it's appropriate.

Ben

No, I can link to the UnderGuidelines.

When I used your 'What you look for' on the group I was trying to point to the need for variety - new styles, authors, genres... at a time when there were a lot of similar AWW entries.

You know what, I think I was looking for that checklist we said we wouldn't have .

Right, if no-one is adverse, I think I might take on condensig the Miner/Polisher Volunteer Pages from the five there is down to a more slimline version(s). Everyone happy about that?

I'm happy with that!

Ben

A4184516

Right, first draft test Page for the new condensed Miners Home Page here A4188819

Wot dya reckon?

My draft was at A4183210
I'm happy to pass off condensing the volunteer pages to someone else Less work for me and I'm working on the tutorial page.

Okay.
I'm assembling some UG unpolished entries to give as examples for the tutorial (I'm thinking five or six that the polishers can choose from). I always liked using Peregrine's stuff, like A989210 as an example of something that would be a good polisher test. I believe I gave Tube one of Peregrine's entries for his test and we ended up using his polished results for the UG

Anyone else have some examples of entries that demonstrate polishing skills? Anything in the AWW, unpolished UG entries, entries you just made up? Any suggestions gratefully received.

Looking through our UG archives, these three unpolished forms struck me as possible good tutorial subjects.

A989210 - The Mole as a Weapon of War (some grammatical errors... no GML)
A1900289 - The Three Deaths of Jeremiah Harper (no GuideML)
A985719 - Tetris - Needed formatting.

I'm thinking that the tutorial information could be on the same page as the polishers' guidelines. We need to compile those, by the way. A checklist for polishers.

Jodan

I'm working on condensing the Polishers page currently offsite. I thought about this and I think having a seperate turtorial page is better. That way the Home Page isn't bogged down with technical stuff. That way we all have a blueprint to work from too concerning UnderGuide Entries, which of course as time goes on can be updated more easily than updating the whole Polishing Home Page. Just my opinion though.

That works for me, Frood!

Ben