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

Do you think this episode is telling us that there's an appetite for more collaborative entries? That forum died a long time ago but it looks like a new wave of researchers may make it possible to run these again...

Icy

The problem with the old-style collaborations is that they tended to be just a whole lot of different views bunged together. It's as if we wanted to paint a picture of an elephant, and we divided it up: you do the top left, I'll do the top right, and so on, without agreeing on what the overall picture should look like.

This approach can work well for certain subjects - if the picture was to be "The Parade", then each person could work on their own little piece and the combination would probably work rather well.

My collaborations are different - I retain overall control, and I decide on a direction for the entry. I accept contributions that work towards that and ignore ones that lead in different directions. This approach requires the person who is in control to be much more interested in the subject; it's not something you can just assign someone to after the event.

But it's certainly interesting that as soon as I proposed the subject, people started making suggestions. It has to be a subject that everybody has an opinion on, and purple seems to be just that.

Yes, I see what you mean.

I'm not clear in my own mind on what are the best subjects for collaboration - some of the ones with personal experiences work well.

Maybe I'll think of something and test the water.