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

If you are serious about a regular column for TP it would be good to introduce it in the 6th December edition... the 2nd Birthday.
If you can decide exactly on the name I can ask one of our resident graphic artists to design a logo for you.

shazz

It is! It's a deadline! Aagghh!

Let's assume tonsil (who said "when want intro") has accepted the challenge and is now beavering away. We should expect him to share his wisdom with us prior to submitting to der Post in time to meet that deadline.
Meanwhile, others should be offering suggestions for future links so we can discuss their merits and make editorial suggestions to the writers. We'll need a form letter.
Maybe something like:
"The Alternate Writers Workshop, a group, dedicated to finding and promoting the works of writers who have that magic glint in their maddened eyes, have stumbled across your posting at %x$%. We would very much like to link to it from our AWW spolight page in a future issue of the Post. And the cool part is, all you gotta do is think about making the following suggested improvements ...etc."

I'll try to 'scout' around a bit myself today.


Hi Ho, Hi Ho,
It's off to work we go..

~j~

ok, likewise. Here's something that made *me* laugh recently and is currently languishing in a corner of AWW.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A654392

Whaddaya reckon?

This one really made me laugh, though I think it comes into the 'could be excellent with *some* polishing' category.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A617041

Lucinda entry not too bad.
Bit about bombing maybe wrong time.

Find plain text intro on my space when I get around to it today.

Will use Galactic Anomaly Group until told otherwise.
Not married to it, but like acornym.

Not as retchy as AGGH!

Not as cute as AWW, which sounds like a comment in a newborn display room in horspital.

Will not go on at length. Figure brevity is the sole of wit.

Will eventually learn to form sentences without sounding like Mongo.

Am voting for Library Games as first victim.

Gotta like GAG as a neat acronym ..but AWW has such a wonderful slugline to go with it, and you know how editors like 'subheadings'.

"Open your mind and say AWW"

Tell us again where 'Library Games' is/are, please.

~j~

Rofl, j! I like it.

A586550-Falling asleep with sunglasses on

Bossel likes this one. Hmmm?

A621505-Games to play whilst bored in school libraries

'Open up and say AWW!' um, okay. Slightly worried about protuberant connotations but okay.

gotta learn to use this computer some day.

"Open your mind and say,'AWW!'. Got it.

Okay, it's at A663149

Now I'm going to go try to learn how to use Guide ML and that thing you do with the links and a can opener and cutting and pasting and ...

I love my typewriter! It asks nothing of me but paper and ribbon and that I don't forget and leave it out in the rain!

I'm gonna go put gas in the vehicle. I find computers frustrating.

Yes I think Lucinda's 'laughing' article is primo!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A654392

Anybody wanna suggest any editting? There's a couple of ruff spots syntax-wise, and I ain't a big fan of footnotes, but that's Lucy, and that's life. I highly recommend it, even 'as is' but we should let Lucy decide.
The overall effect is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for and it's references to DNA's books are right on target.
Discussion?
Anyone wanna ask Lucy if we can plug it?

jwf

tonsil
None of the A-number links you typed in above (three of 'em) works for me in the h2g2 searchbox. Typos?

Another way to post a link is to open a reply box, then open another window to the page you want to link, and then leftclick-and-hold on that URL and drag it into the reply box in your first window.
(I know, it doesn't make sense til you've done it a few times.)

Anyway, at this point I can't find the three articles you referred to, so check your typing or type out the whole URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/etcetcetcetcetc
Or wait. Maybe its me? Do I need to put a space or dash after the A as in A-621505?
( off to check)
peace
jwf

Told you I didn't know how to use a computer.

Don't worry about it it'll come to you.
Having been here a year now, I assure you patience is your best ally, and little tricks like links and smileys will come to you.
You have typing skills and a track record (according to claims you made in threads at your homepage) as a championspeller. Those are the two big obstacles that get most new-pooter-users down. You're 2/3 of the way to cyberspectacularity. But I know you're suffering first stage h2g2 addiction symptoms and you want it ALL, NOW.

I still don't understand why 'h2g2 search' can't find those A-numbers but I found your first draft of the AWW/Post page intro:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A663149

I hope others will offer some constructive criticism, maybe even re-write large sections! It's 'a good start' as they say, but wanders somewhat off the point a few times for the sake of being merely clever. Not that I argue with, or object to, your cleverness. I enjoy it more than most I'm sure, but it may be getting in the way of our mission here. Less is more, eh!
Generally, the piece needs a bit sharper focus and a clearer statement of our objectives. We can promote our own silliness later. And we will! But let's capture an audience for AWW generally first.
Fair?
~j~

Ah, but it was done quickly. The next one will be done just as fast.
I had to get back at you guys for the interminable posts and the abrupt way in which it was requested.
I will go forth now and crank out something completely different.

I just hooked up an old printer and went to the offic store with the family to get an Idiot book on Windrows 98 and a couple of ribbons.
I clicked print on one ML page and now the printer is pumping out the Bible! Pluh, pluh, pluh.

There it is. I would have been done sooner if the printer hadn't decided to strip out the tractor holes and print three pages in a half an inch.
If you don't like this one, I'll try again. I've ten days.

Now back to trying to learn to use this interactive idiot box.

Perhaps we could divide the group into scouts and subeditors? I don't really have the time to make a commitment to subediting, but I still want to nominate pages for consideration. Other people who may want to join (~unresolved issue~) might be more interested in sub-editing or more interested in scouting. (We could come up with better names than "scout" and "subeditor," but the same kind of function.)

Hi tonsil,

Good start on the AWW intro. I have a few questions & suggestions.

"Some of the pieces will be from the old Guide, others will be items that have already had an encounter with PR, while many will have been considered unsuitable for the Guide previously."

I'm not sure what you meant by pieces from "the old Guide." Does that mean h2g2 before BBC, or the Guide mentioned in the books (before h2g2.com)? At first I thought you meant entries that were accepted in the original h2g2 Edited Guide, but had been removed for whatever reason. I don't think there are any entries like that, except for maybe a few risque ones like Male and Female Masturbation (which were hidden for several months after BBC takeover, finally put back up about 2 months ago?).

"while many will have been considered unsuitable for the Guide previously" --I think it would be good to distinguish in here somewhere that we're looking for pieces rejected by or unsuitable for the Edited Guide mainly for stylistic reasons. First person writing is seen as distasteful in the Edited Guide, but not here. Describing personal experience is mostly outlawed in the Edited Guide, interviews, parody, intentionally untrue entries, fiction, poetry, etc.

Anyhow, I just meant that we're still looking for quality pieces, not every piece that gets rejected from PR or the Edited Guide.

Thanks =X, good points. In fact I wish you would expand the list of 'things we're looking for' to be complete, concise and clear. There's many a pedant lurking round h2g2 who will find fault unless we are comprehensive and very matter-of-fact about our mission statement. And that's what this first 'intro to AWW' has to be.

tonsil, you seem to nearing the mark, tone and temperament-wise, but you threw out a lot of your original funny stuff that was quite worthy. Damn this medium, it's so hard to blue-pencil-edit somebody else's stuff. I liked the first one, even it rambled, and the second one is better for a 'mission statement' but needs more info. My 'critique' seems to have squelched your pleasure a bit. Now you know how hard it will be for any of us to 'edit' other people's work.

I guess one of us who knows how to do 'links' will need to do the final draft to include the essential references to '27th Letter','the AWW' and this 'thread'.

Not having yet heard from Lucinda, or heard anyone volunteer to make contact, I am none-the-less drafting an 'introduction' to that link for the next issue, hoping Lucinda will approve.

Are we realising we've bit off more than we can chew yet? How many of us, or ANY welcome newcomers, are willing to go on? Any suggestions on how to cooperatively write and edit these peices without upsetting the original authours? Should we maybe aim for the third anniversary edition of the Post? Are we having fun yet?

peace
~j~