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

I go and take one little nap and see what a happens. Some yutz spills beer in here and walks through with feet coated with butter!

go gets mop and bucket of hot water
slop!
swish swish swish
squeeze
swish swish swish
squeeze
ah thats done it.
exits, pushing mop bucket, whistling Mahler.

Which symphony?

shazz

The shteppin-int-ze-bier one!

"I figure direct submission to some UnderGuide page, and the AWW as well, but not people randomly trawling the unedited guide. Just me."

Aha. This is where that group dynamic can come in handy. Y'all can focus on the intentional submissions to UnderGuide, and things hashed out on the AWW. If nobody else wants the burden of randomly trawling the unedited guide, I'd like to do so. It could be more like finding interesting entries and asking the authors to submit them in the AWW, then handle as usual. But I'll gladly volunteer to be the Bottom-Feeder, if nobody else likes the idea of crawling through the mud.

I second the nomination of "Top Ten Boring Library Games."

Now what do we call this project or this group? Do we need further discussion of the merits of sub-editing, or is everyone ready to decide on that?

*ahem*

Whoa ..this is all moving way to fast more me.
Deidzoeb? That's jewish isn't it? Deidzoeb? Can I call you Dei?

I believe you said:
>..nothing against jwf, may god bless him and cthulhu refrain from eating his brain, he hasn't expressed much interest here lately.
(Come on, John, prove me wrong! The more the merrier!)<

And before that you said:
>In the Paper Age, before the web, we had to rely on book and magazine editors to read through slushpiles of bad writing and pick out the gems<

So far you're two for two.
I am indeed merry for I find there are now several very clever folks
anxious to create a new 'space' for my kind of humour and truth. Sorry but truth is an issue because any a-hole can be funny. Being funny though, just ain't worth squat if it has no greater social purpose than 'entertainment'.

Some of you boys seem to be made of the righteous kinda moral fibre we bin looking for here at AGG (the Alternative Guide to the Galaxy) and y'appear to have the energy necessary to create some good stuff yourselves, and y'all seem qualified to go out and find others. Now, dissemination of the awful truth to the masses. For fun and profit. That's the real question.

Seems to me that gathering all the goodies into one pile, like a magazine, an e-zine or even like our very own Post is a good idea, and we all seem to favour a 'special flavour' editorial policy with the likes of Swift and Twain and Monty Python as icons of our ideals.

But gathering stuff together into one pile is a print (think 'acquisitions') mentality. Could we not engage the internet to do what it does best and simply 'guide' people to the best material wherever it happens to ..is it lie or lay?

BTW: If anyone so much as touches the jewish joke at the head of this posting I am out of here. And I'm taking [name witheld] with me.

peace
~j~
PS: And I'll probably go on calling him tonsil's revenge until I'm told 'why' that's not what it is. I suspect he just keeps deliberately mistyping it. Electronic wordprocessors have that effect on real 'typewriter people'. As we say in TV production, "We can always fix it in post".

... I think!

Drop by The Post and leave me a note if/when you have decided what to do then please guys.

shazz

It is Tonsil Revenge, two names, not an adjective, or a title of a bad novel (well, actually, it is, but not that kind.)
You want me to work at finding and encouraging, fine, I'm already doing that. I will do whatever I have to do. All I want is to have a designated place where strangers can trip over my overweaning wittiness without going to my personal space.
I will write guide entries. I'm working on one now with ZSF.
I will probably do what Bossel wants me to and volunteer to be a scout. Once I figure out the handshake.
But. BUt. BUT. I came to the Comedy Workshop to work.
I came to AGGH because the CW is laying there with x's for eyes.
I found AGGH clinging to it's walker.
The Post is interested. Lucinda is interested. We are interested.
Any bunch of looneys with an agenda can form a revolutionary army around here. I want to start a comedy revolution. BTW that's not a*hole, it's A*hole, Sir, to you.

And I didn't get the joke. Maybe if somebody who isn't jewish tells it.

The Post and many websites provide links to material. They collect and edit and 'post' material, then 'publish' a page of promoting links to the material. But first you have to know the Post is there and where to find it. The same as 'the Front Page' or any Forum or any external website which gathers organises and edits articles. This requires not only that the reader be aware of the site but also that they take the action to go there to see what is currently being promoted. How about we just deliver. We just go popping round everywhere providing links. No need for people to know where to go, or search an index of links. They just find them strewn in their path like: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585?thread=153157 All we need do is create a logon entity called AGG we can all access and use as a signature mark to our 'guidance'. Readers will soon identify an AGG signature as a sure sign that the link goes to something worth reading. Let's face it, people do like to click (once), it's an instant gratification world. But we gotta be very careful that what we guide them to is AGG-worthy. That's where you energetic young geniuses come in... ~j~ Hey Shazz don't leave. You've been down this road before with your own editorial flavour and done the balancing act. We need your guidance.

Fine. Get somebody to cough up a logo.

you still haven't pointed out the presence of a joke.

Oh, that's right, you're one of those 'stand-up' Charlies! You're used to hearing the crickets on a good night.

Quick! Moriarty, snatch his hand! Is it smooth!
Yes, Gridpipe, like a baby's bottom!

You mean you don't think http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F19585?thread=153157 is funny? ~j~

That reminds me of an old Emo Phillips joke:

My wife was in bed with another man
I was crushed
With tears in my eyes I said
GET OFF ME!

I'm not leaving.

I just happened across your discussions and thought I would say that The Post is always interested in good material.

It looks as if you are all still sorting out exactly what you want from this project, though, so I didn't want to be seen as interferring or influencing you in any way.

Just one point, though.

The Post actually *does* take the items proferred and edit them... albeit very lightly and with, hopefully, no significant changes to style. We try to maintain the smae 'feel' to all Post articles, so some of the coding used doesn't conform to regular guideML standards (so far this is a concession from the Towers... I always dread the fact that they might change GuideML policy because I would have to trawl through and change items yet again! I think that every Post article from the early days has been edited at least three times to date!

We do, very occasionally, just 'link' to entries, but this is very rare... the notable exception being 'So long and thanks...'. Because we want to make sure that ALL Post items are forever held in The Post archives we prefer to hold the editorial rights to them... so the writer is duly credited, but the Post Team is the 'editor'.

How to we find items at the moment?:

1)Some researchers volunteer their work.
2)Some researchers write their own weekly/monthly columns.
3)Some researchers are sent along by Scouts when they read a good entry which doesn't conform to 'official' entry standards. (As someone said earlier, we are more than happy to include first-person narratives, fiction and comedy.).
4)The Post Team tries to check out as many entries as they can and actually 'ask' if they may include them.
5)Some researchers 'know' when to contact us... John-the-gardener, for example, knows that we are always pleased to include his items on Tibet and environmental issues. Whether he writes them specifically for TP or not, they are always welcome.
6)Just occasionally TP happens upon a user space where the researcher has written an interesting introduction but not thought to expound on it. TP *has* been known to encourage said researcher to write... Methos and her study of Mongolian Folk Tales is one which springs to mind... or Richard with his early writing on John Ridgeway.

In other words... TP is inherently nosey!

I hope this helps. Sorry about the length of this reply.

shazz

And no, I didn't understand a word of it. Its not one of those obscure phone exchange prefixes is it? Or a number you punch in to summon a midwife?
or is it an obscure menage a trois(sp?) reference?
Or it is the cube root of your shoe size?

Oh, look, its the guy with the dirty feet again. I will study what you said. I did not know most of this. Who does one kill to get a column?

Hey, have you guys seen my space? There's some wonderful stuff dere, I swear!

'Oh, look, its the guy with the dirty feet again.'

Guy???!!!

How do you get a column? You ask nicely, show us some writing, come up with reasonable ideas on the subject/content of proposed same and then ask nicely again

shazz

Mmm..yezzz ..it coulda bin longer. But as it is, concise and comprehensive, it certainly gives us a lot to think about.

One thought I have is the demographic dictum of the Post (and all the others) seems to be a consciously democratic and diplomatic effort to appeal to as wide a range of interests as possible.
Newspapers offer variety for the widest circulation. They section and group areas of interest in some sort of organisational system which the reader must be able to interpret. There is a trial and error period of exploration the reader must 'endure' to find his favourite features and is then obliged to remember to seek that space regularly. (The Archives mediate part of that problem for infrequent flyers - a positive internet capable value-added feature of e-zines such as the Post.)

Creating a wider readership in the print medium increases circulation numbers and this enhances advertising profits. Since advertising as we knew it has failed miserably on the web, is there any other real reason to concentrate an editorial policy on increasing readership.

Most websites have come up with dandy spiffy logos, but they are using them as gateposts, frontdoors, environments not 'keys' to the kingdom. An AGG signature (logo if you will) would be like a sterling silver mark, a AAA approved motel, a Hallmark, a stamp of approval.
That's all it need be, a brand, a guidepost, to 'qualified' places of interest. Much the same way XXX on a video guarantees a good laugh and maybe if you're lucky a bit o'the ol' slap and tickle,eh!

~j~

I'm gonna touch it:

"That's jewish isn't it? Deidzoeb? Can I call you Dei?"

"Deidzoeb" is supposed to look like an Italian name that would be pronounced "dayjob." As in, "Don't quit your-"

"But gathering stuff together into one pile is a print (think 'acquisitions') mentality. Could we not engage the internet to do what it does best and simply 'guide' people to the best material wherever it happens to ..is it lie or lay?"

Originally, I was thinking of this more in terms of AGGH showing links to unedited h2g2 pages worthy of note, or a column in the h2g2 Post which would show links. Lucinda suggested turning existing guide entries into pages for The Post (paper idea instead of webby).

John, let me guess that you're with me on the issue of sub-editing (opposed)? I say let them stand or fall on their own. We could suggest corrections or clarifications in Alt Writing Workshop (a la Peer Review), but allow the final product to be as polished or as messy as the author finally decides. (At some point, an interesting topic that remained too messy would just be judged not worth shouting about.) You can advise a Playboy Reporter how to improve his piece, but if he disagrees, then I say leave it alone.

Call me,
Anything But Late For Dinnerzoeb

jwf,

Re: AGG as unique login identity. Plaguesville just filled me in on "biggreensmilie" and all the potential for destruction that could be done with it.

Sounds like an interesting possibility, but I would be afraid it would be seen as spam, if you're talking about dropping ads in conversations.

"The same as 'the Front Page' or any Forum or any external website which gathers organises and edits articles. This requires not only that the reader be aware of the site but also that they take the action to go there to see what is currently being promoted."

Shouldn't be a major problem if we're going to build up a reputation anyway. "Readers will soon identify an AGG signature [or the AGG page, or the AGG column in the Post] as a sure sign that the link goes to something worth reading."

Okay, its that person with the big dirty feet.

Okay. you want an idiot button, jeff? You can have it.
Okay. you want not editing, BleuZoeb? You can have it.
Okay. you want what you want, Post Tootsies? You can have it.
Now. your turn.



Lets,see, where was I , jeff? Is it a linguistic joke? An in joke?
A bit of childish gibberish? A brand of ale? A Peugoet model number?
A brand of condom? A pink rubber for schoolchildren?

If you considered an AGG column that would certainly be a good option, indeed.

I would still have to insist that TP could edit the item if needed though. As I said earlier, we don't like to just 'link' to entries.

With your own column, a logo would definitely be on the cards.

shazz