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

Hello

Just thought I'd pop in and say well done and

Here are a few nitpicks I picked up on my quick diagnosis of your Entry:

You are right to put in Footnotes but it is unnecessary to leave a gap before you place one.

<<Be happyAnd if you do get the lurgy from a dirty telephone, well that's life. We all have to die of something.!>>

Double spacing before a new sentence is unnecessary.

You may like to title your links thus:

bacteria found in soil

Becomes

bacteria found in soil

The use of at the end of your Entry is unnecessary

This Entry is shaping up nicely.

Entry: Filth: What Is It Good For? - A46416125
Author: Tibley Bobley - U170471

For ease of loading

Danny B, I've followed your advice. The "immune system" link has been unfootnoted and the parasite footnote has been clarified. Is it clear enough, do you think?

Anne and dmitri, this entry is no place for respectable oysters or circus acts

Besides, I wouldn't want to be held responsible for getting 2legs over stimulated

Thank you Opticalillusion. That was very thorough of you

I hadn't noticed the superfluous spaces before the footnotes. I know how they got there. My ancient version of Word always takes the liberty of whacking in an unwanted space when I cut and paste. Sometimes I forget to trim them out. Thanks for pointing them out.

As for the two spaces between sentences, that's an almost life-time habit - at least since secretarial college. It's how we were taught to do it, and since the h2g2 parser (or whatever it's called) strips them out, nobody is going to notice unless they want to resort to the test facility. Nobody is going to notice the spare paragraph either unless they test. I usually leave a spare at the bottom until a piece is finished.

What's the reason for the 'title' thingy? I tried it but I couldn't see what difference it made.

The TITLE thingy puts the reference in the column on the right, so people can see a list of all the hyperlinks over there. EG folks are dead keen on them...

On the AWW, I'm almost the only one with the temerity to use it, usually in an attempt to disguise the nasty little horrors I've hidden under the picture...

I remember that double-spacing from the typing textbooks, as well.

Self-taught, used a book, since they wouldn't let me in the class...back in the Dark Ages, manual typewriters, oh, my...

Double spacing at the beginning of course Really are standards in written english sinking so low taht this isn't commonly practised any more?: I hate to think how long I spent checking my dissertation and then my thesis for my BSc and MSc to ensure that it was all spaced right... Of course with search and replace in Word that isn't necessarily as difficult as once it were

Over excited? Moi?

someone say oyster?... oysters... filth.... smut... blimey sounds like my last summer holiday

Ah ha! That's why I couldn't see any difference. The column on the right doesn't display in preview. I only tried it in preview. Scratched my head and wondered...

Thanks dmitri. In that case, I'll have to do it tomorrow. My eyes are beginning to cross they've been focused on screens so long today

What interesting holidays you must have, 2legs

*imagines 2legs on holiday...*

*gets envious*

My Holidays are very borring in some ways... get somewhere, find pub..... two weeks or a week later come back home Well some* are a bit more interesting but they useually involve seaside UK Towns

No problem I’m pleased to be of help.

dmitrigheorgheni for answering the query to the title question.

Right these are the last little nitpicks from me

Pretend for a second you forgot to read the title and just started reading the Entry. I'm not sure whether the reader would understand what the subject is. Perhaps you could put that OED definition first.

Can you tell me what OED stands for? You can always put the letters in brackets after you've written it out in full.

The definition should be put in single quotation marks rather than double

When writing numbers, the English Usage in the Edited Guide A266131 states that

<>

You appear to be verging on repetition with the word 'long', is there an alternative?

There is room for more links eg. A246971 Compost

Thats all from me

The parasite footnote reads well to me

Thank you for giving me an excuse for failing to do the housework, Tibley!

This is interesting and a good read, though I suspect that there are more complex mechanisms involved in the increase in allergies than this suggests.

Couple of nitpicks:
*In para 5 you put 'a child' then 'they'. Would it be better to say 'children?
* in the 3rd para on the immune system, you don't need a comma after "Everyone of us alive today".

When I started seeing the advertisements by the NHS in regards to children using tissues so they kill of the germs etc. I groaned. I used to work for the NHS as a Children's Nurse, and it increasingly worried me how the over-cleanliness of children was actually making an impact on herd immunity. Without children building up tolerance, and immunity, even minor bugs and illnesses are on the increase.

So well done at getting this great unwashed riled up!

And well done at taking the Stretcher topic right to the line

The Great Unwashed indeed.

Nice stuff TB, the PR pedants will ask you to change bold text to italic, insert title tags to your outside hyperlinks, add more h2g2 links and numerous other bits and bobs, but to be honest, content wise - here

I love this entry! I don't know if it's a cause and effect thing, but I was always allowed to grub around in the dirt as a kid (and the bubble bath afterwards is half the fun), and I've never had the slightest hint of asthma or hay fever.

Immunologically speaking it is a complicated thing, allergy, ther eare some fairly well documented genetic suseptibility to allergys, as well as some genetic factors which seem to determine severity or type of allergy, but some do just seem to 'generally' increase the risk of allergy... As far as I know pretty much none of these genetic factors is 100%; I.E., having the gene doesn't give certainty of getting an allergy, and hence that is where environmental factors obviously come in,; From exposure to certain parthogens that can trigger allergy to exposure or not to the antigens in question taht the allergy is an over-the-top response tooo....
Mind, I still like filth.... and smut also...

Thank you one and all. Burning the midnight oil here again. I think I've made all the changes suggested: links, formatting, grammar... what else? I don't know. It's been a long day. I'll check again tomorrow. I thought I had something more to add but Oh yes, I remember. Good night!

Ever so kind of you all to read and comment

Awake at last. Seeing linking is the /thing/ in this neck of the woods, I've indulged in a linking spree. I hope Danny B won't mind (it might be considered a diabolical liberty - if so, tell me gently and I'll remove it) but I've linked to his 'Oysters' because 1) apparently they're filthy and 2) I liked it very much indeed.

I've also discovered footnotes are nestable

Unless I've missed anything, I think I've made good use of every suggestion made hereabove (except 2legs's request for smut (I have standards you know!)).

Think that's it. Thanks folks

Oh and a PS: you were spot-on Matt. It was the Great Unwashed that gave me the idea

pssst - you can't link to Oysters yet, it's not Edited...yet

I don't mind at all

You might want to put a note in that the link will need to be updated by the sub-editor to the Edited version of the Oysters Entry when (and if!) we both make it through PR

Oh oh. Right

Thanks Matt...