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

My dearest whoever,

This entry extends the excellent Edited Guide Entry http://www.h2g2.com/A262775 on asthma written by Peta.

Adding new information, taking a global view, while looking at causes and remedies, IMHO it stands alone (linked to Peta's of course).

At the very least, this new article should be combined with the existing one.

Dr Loonytunes, (garbology), an asthma sufferer.

Cooeee - any scouts out there?

This article seemed well written and informative. I agree with you in that it should be combined with the previous article about asthma, as Peta's article is quite short.

However, the introduction, while also on the subject of asthma, is a bit of a non sequitur. It doesn't lead into anything or relate to anything else in the article; the article on asthma is just as complete without it. Were I to use it, I would make it a footnote or put it at the end of the article.

Thanks for your submission. I can't speak for the other scouts, but I didn't see your article yesterday (Monday) because yesterday was Labor Day, the one day in America when (supposedly) no one is supposed to work.

Wampus, that you for your kind words. Presumably whoever combines the two entries will use a new intro... or are you saying you will recommend this article as a stand alone?

Oops, make that thank you.

I don't know what the protocols for combining articles or recommending articles be combined is.

In any case, my next turn to recommend an article won't come up for another month, so any other scout is free to recommend this one in the meantime.

Wampus, the h2g2 Medical Team has written an article about asthma. There is a link to it on the h2g2 front page. This article is extremely UK-centric. Mine complements it.

I have rejigged the intro on my yarn.

Loony

Any Scouts out there?

My dear fellow Scouts, this article has been extensively rewritten and now works well as a complementary yarn to the existing medically-centric entry.

Well I think so

http://www.h2g2.com/A429914

It's good - full of useful information and interesting. It seems more comprehensive than the one whose link you generously put in your first post at the top of the thread (instead of your own). I had one minor niggle: Based on the data you quoted about hygiene it looks as though asthma is a disease of English speaking people. Aren't the French and Germans equally fastidious and don't they suffer from asthma too?

I was talking to someone a few days ago who said that houses with carpets were better for asthmatics because they trap all the particles until the vacuum cleaner sucks them up, whereas houses with floorboards just allow the particles to drift about. This is contrary to what it states in the edited entry, by the way.

Thanks Salamander for posting the correct link. I must have been drinking when I first posted the yarn at Peer Review.

The yarn mentions asthma badly affects, in the main, people from "Western" countries - the term "Western" includes countries like Germany and France

Have you seen the article on asthma written by the h2g2 medical team at http://www.h2g2.com/A408818 ? I have linked my one to it in the believe they complement each other. Mine tends to quote more recent studies and discusses the disease from a more global perspective so is quite different.

As well as vacumming carpets, asthma sufferers should vacuum their bed mattress once a week. Preferably, these tasks should be done by someone who does not suffer from asthma.

Good grief. That medical team article is pretty comprehensive isn't it? There does seem to be a degree of overlap between your article and theirs.

I get the impression that edited entries can be updated. Is there a system whereby any new information can be brought to the attention of the Editors? The Scouts should know if there is such a system, presumably. If not, maybe you could leave a message for Anna. She edited that article. I bet she would know how to go about incorporating any new data.

Salamander, new information can be added to the forums of edited entries. Eventually, someone will go through the guide and read all the forums and update articles with any relevant new info.

Mark Moxon (h2g2's editor-in-chief), has explained to the subs and scouts that at the moment h2g2 do not have the human resources to facilitate this (lack of money) - but it is in the long-term plan.

Occasionly, if a new submitted article is much better than the existing h2g2 yarn, the two will be combined.

In my opinion - and as you rightly point out - my yarn approaches the subject of asthma from a different perspective to the medical article so should be accepted as a stand-alone yarn.

Loony (sub and scout) - We are not allowed to recommend our own articles (sob).

Well, I like your article. If there can be more than one edited entry on a subject (and I can't see why there shouldn't be), then I think it should be picked by a scout. Things are very quiet round here at the moment. I expect most are taking a holiday from scouting.

Hmm - the medical article is... well... medical, isn't it...

I like it: I'd say it should go as a seperate entry - it'd only drown in amongst all that biological and technical stuff - and that it should go in.

It would be nice to have a little more stuff in the shape of personal experiences of asthma, maybe - because that's the sort of stuff that is so obvious in its abscence from the existing entry.

You may have missed this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A262775 - it has stuff about the causes of asthma, and you might want to check you aren't duplicating any of it in your talk about the same topic. Perhaps steer away from that side of things?

It also contradicts you on rural/urban levels of asthma - but which is correct...?

Peta's yarn talks about asthma from a British perspective. Mine takes a global overview.

In my opinion, they all compliment (and should be linked to) each other. Think of it like an h2g2 University entry on asthma. One subject encompassing numerous viewpoints.

Lucinda, why not recommend it anyway. At least that way we will find out what Anna thinks about it?

If she hates it, nothing is lost because you will get another pick

I'm just not convinced that there's a difference between the causes of asthma in the UK and the causes of asthma worldwide: it's the same disease, right?

Asthma has many triggers. Attacks can also vary in severity.

My yarn is up to date and factual. A doctor friend helped me write it.

After six months I have just realised I haven't included a link to the acrual article. It lives at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A429914

It's hard to get good staff

I am puzzled by this entry Loony. Maybe if you made it more subjective, more about the difficulties of 'Living with Asthma', and cut out some of the overlap, there would be a better chance of a recommendation. As it presently reads, I don't see how it would get in as a standalone. If you want it combined with the Medical Teams entry, I think your route is via JimiX.