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

This post has been removed.

Removed???!!??

Hunh?? Wha???!!!??

Some explanation seems in order here.

Barton

I committed the terrible sin of posting a URL (which the moderators tell me is "a website address").


The posting was:

On the SARC website, at [URL removed by moderator] - or it might have been in my regular email form the SARC team, but SARC was the source.

This, I have to say, is a very silly rule.

Seems bizzare that sometimes the whole posting goes and sometimes it is just the url.

agcB

It must have been a very nasty URL.

I have given up posting URLS for the duration. My usual workaround is to cite a unique phrase to search on. This is most defninitely not against the rules . . .

. . . yet.

BArton

Firstly, it IS possible for an email without an attachment to have a virus. See {URL removed by moderator] for an example. As far am I am aware the only current examples can affect only MS Outlook and Outlook Express.

And secondly, does that mining co link still work? (I can't try it from this machine). I thought they moved on to being about.com an age ago. Might be wrong about that though.

Regards
Muppet

An acceptable workaround for the link ban is to post URLs to your homepage, or create a seperate page to act as a depository for your links. I've created one such, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A532289

Oh well, the link itself is not important. The virus (technically a worm) is recognised by most of the major AV vendors as something akin to VBS/Kakworm, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding the info on any of their sites, or on Sarc's.

Please list the name of this virus or some other way to get information about it that the moderators won't blip.

It is obviously not a text message, since it is not possible for a text message to be a virus/worm/Trojan horse.

Information please.

Barton

Kak.

(That's the name of the worm)

I'm sorry. Would it help if I pounded on your back?

Barton

No

I agree with you regarding concentrating on the substance not the appearance. As a sometime-sub I very often have to strip Guide ML out of an article because the researcher has either overdone it or has used non-Guide ML tags (this still happens) - however if the article uses complex tables etc and the researcher has put in GML that works I will leave it as it is. Sooooo, keep concentrating on subject content, if you want to put GML in that's great, if you don't want to, that's great as well!

I know the Kakworm virus well, if it's akin to it, it shouldn't be a major problem to deal with if it pops up. Thanks for the info.

Busking, thanks for the support regarding GuideML and it's inclusion or lack thereof in articles. I couldn't agree more, to me it's just plain rediculous to demand someone learn a programming language just to make their article LOOK better before recommending it for inclusion into The Guide. I get the feeling more and more people are giving their opinion that you need GuideML in your article when they have nothing else they can say, but are absolutely bound and determined that nothing is good enough straight off for inclusion. SOMETHING has to be changed otherwise what purpose is there for them to go around checking articles?
~§~
§hadow

You know, I try not to let appearance affect my judgement in these situation, but I know that I'm more critical the rougher an article looks.

It's probably just the influence of my mother who always told me to stand up straight and always try to look my best.

I agree that writer shouldn't need to know how to program and I have hopes that the future will bring a tool that will give us WYSIWYG editing and generate good Guide ML perferably online with a drop down menu, spell and grammar checker, and maybe a little oven that pops out snacks when you finish a nice paragraph. (Lord knows, that even a tepid cup of tea would be welcome on occasion.)

I write software to keep the food on my table, so it really doesn't mean much to me to throw a few tags into my text. Particularly since the word processors I learned on required much the same thing in the beginning.

But if a writer is willing to take the time and feels that it is important to put in a few headers then I don't hesitate to point out that things would look a heck of a lot better with paragraph tags. After all, they wouldn't look that bad if they had just been left in plain text with extra spaces here and there for the sake of clarity and a heading indicated by a short line of text all alone.

I can't write without parenthetical comments (as you may have noticed) so footnotes were the next thing I wanted to learn to use and they couldn't be simpler than they are in Guide ML. After that, it's pretty much up to you what you want to do yourself and leave the rest for the sub-editors who have their fingers on the pulse of h2g2 style anyway (I hope.)

That's that from me and the only reason why I bother to bother.

Barton

Barton,
That was very informative and insightful stuff into what motivates you as an individual. Thank you for sharing the deeply personal bits from your past with us all as well. It was exceptionally helpful and inciteful in regards to this article and getting it included into The Guide.
~§~
§hadow

[From time to time, every man is tempted to hoist the skull and crossbones and slit a few throats just to get the job done.] - R.A.H.

{Me, I'm tempted to every day, just help the world reduce it's share of blithering idiots.} - ~§~

Hey, you haven't begun to hear the personal stuff.

Just don't stand to near to me in an E-Cafe, that virtual wine is bad enough, but I'm awfully fond of virtual brandy.

(Besides, I'm a slob and I slouch, too.)



Barton

Could be worse, you could be a sloub and a sloch too! Now about one of you Scouts recommending this for entry into The Guide...hint, hint. Subtle eh?
~§~
§hadow

[From time to time, every man is tempted to hoist the skull and crossbones and slit a few throats just to get the job done.] - R.A.H.

;-/

Barton

Yoo Hoo any Scouts out there?
~§~
§hadow

[From time to time every man is tempted to hoist the skull and crossbones and slit a few throats to get the job done.]