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

Entry: Help Page Update - *Why be a Community Artist?* - A51650020
Author: Alex Tufty Ashman [!] - U566116


Another Help Page Update (see A38093402) - please comment on ways in which this Help Page could be made more accessible and easier to read.

Alex

Oh and it's an update of <./>CommunityArtists-Why</.>

When I don't have anything positive to say about an article, I refrain from making comments. Here, I'll make an exception.

Perhaps you should consider a title change ('How to become part of the elite', 'Good enough to stand out from the hoi-poi'....). If not perhaps a radical change of the text which I find condenscending in the extreme.
I realise that you are just updating the text and probably following some style conventions. Frankly, I find the bubbly style more appropriate for a children's forum.

I hope I've not offended you and I'm certainly not trying to critise your excellent writing skills.

I've said my piece and won't make comments on the other help pages.

Fair comment, but it's not really in my current remit to rewrite the Help Pages from scratch. The aim here is to make the entries easier to use, which I'm hoping to have achieved by cutting out some of the extraneous text and rewording some parts.

Please do say anything you think would be constructive - that's the whole reason the updates go through Peer Review.

"after debate with the volunteers, we've. . . " wouldnt 'discussion be better than debate here?

mini

I've changed that

*blink blink*

Wasn't expecting you to tackle this one

I'll have a good look at it tomorrow; only just got back to Germany and need sleep, since our bus to the airport left Galway at midnight

Just a couple of things

<> unnecessary repetition

Perhaps mention

OK, here we go:

Community Artists's? Really? What's wrong with Artists' without the extra "s"? You wouldn't write about the dogs's feetses, now would you? Sorry, it's just something I see a lot that really annoys me.

"...you have the right to add <./> CommunityArtist </.> (which appears as CommunityArtist) after your name when posting." I've never seen anybody do this in any volunteer scheme, least of all the artists. What prompted its addition?

>>You get direct access to the in-house team, who will provide their community and editorial expertise for free. Feel free to use it.<<

Sadly, that doesn't really seem to apply to the current in-house team - it's more likely that they ask us about the technical aspects and so on! You do benefit from the other artists, but there's not so much editorial guidance going on. (In fact, without wishing to brag, I was specifically asked by the Eds to make the because none of them had the technical skills to do it, though they did offer constructive criticism on its appearance - that's the third incarnation, incoprorating their suggestions.)

I like the reworked last section; it's in a more logical order now.

Can this Entry be linked to a piece in ?

I've sorted out the Artists's - it was a typo generated by using another page about volunteers as a template for this one.

The CommunityArtist tag doesn't get used much, but I've seen Scout, Subeditor and <./>ACE</.> used before.

I'm not sure how I should change the bit about the editorial expertise - it may not be entirely correct, but I'm not sure I can just go and change it.

I can't see any reason why this shouldn't be linked to

Mala we have an answer

Ah, you mean I should link from the help page to the piece in the post That should also be possible, I think.

Don't shout too loudly nobody knows about it yet except for me, Mala, you and but yes link the two together some how.

>>it may not be entirely correct, but I'm not sure I can just go and change it<<

Isn't changing the incorrect information the point of the update? I can see what you mean, though. Perhaps you should simply expand it to include the help and expertise of the other Community Artists, to arrive at something closer to the truth. Unfortunately, the Artists' side of things just includes a lot of technical know-how that it's our job to have, not the Eds', if that makes sense. They can tell us exactly what they want, but not how to do it.

Still not so sure about linking to non-EGEs from help pages, though

I'm not sure - I was thinking of leaving the matter to the Eds.

(The link, that is - I'll go fix the bit about expertise now )

Good idea.

And that looks better.

I just got this idea in my head of Alex doing a presentation and Mala and I sitting back and watching him present this presentation.

Eh? What do you mean, Opti? I'm afraid you've lost me