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

All work that redone, the Myspace and BEBO paragraphs may ahve some flaws so any advice would be appreciated.

TO expand on what i said.
Numerous little comments corrected along with a few spelling mistakes. I have added paragraphs on Bebo and Myspace but have no personal experience with either so people who have that experience please comment.
I have aslo added a paragraph on the banning of Facebook in Syria, Iran and China.

I came across this today :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/young-abandon-social-networking-sites

Given the ever-changing nature of the internet, would it be an idea to 'fix' this entry in the present decade? Ten years hence Facebook might be used by 80% of people using the web or be an almost forgotten relict on a few dusty old computers. Just a thought, feel free to disregard.

I've added a comment but i'm unsure both over how i've phrased, it currently it sounds a bit tacky and also the comments over the guardian entry have challenged some of the assertions.
In any case thx for bringing it here if nothing else its something that has to be considered, and i'll see if theres any more info on it.
Heres hoping my article wont be in the historical section in 10 years

Hello nbb, where you say:

>>It is easy to invite friends, simply search their name and if they have an account then you can send an invitation asking for them to be you Facebook friend.


Can you explain what you mean by 'search their name'

eg search {for} their name on Facebook

and/or search for their name by using their email addresses (from your own address book)

I also wonder whether it is worth mentioning that there can be an element of competition on Facebook, in terms of who has a greater number of 'friends' than others.

hehe cheers for giving me something to do - i will give the two main ways of searching friends (using search box and name and using email addresses but for now i'll leave out the competition
Should be done pretty soon but first i feel like eating some icecream mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

work, done while listening to music all is well with the world

Hello nsb

>>>Facebook has {thousands} of features that allow users to customise their pages. Here are a few that Facebook itself supports and are available to all users.

I think a better word than {thousands} would just be 'many' or 'very many'

>>Facebook {emailing} - Facebook has an internal {email} system that allows users to send messages to each other that cannot be {overheard} by other users.

It's not actually email, perhaps just the word 'mail' would be more accurate. Also, instead of {overhear} what about 'accessed' ?


Check through to ensure that all uses of the word Facebook have capital letters.

All done, hoping to be picked by a scout tomorrow

>>>The Home Page
This is where all {the} data {that are} posted by {the} friends of a Facebook user can be seen.

Change the first instance of {the} to *recent*
Remove {that are} and the subsequent {the}

ie it should now read ""This is where all recent data posted by friends of a Facebook user can be seen.""


>>>{This includes: Any status posted;} photos that have been identified as containing any friend of the user{;} groups that have been joined by Facebook friends and information about friends using their applications (see below).

Change to *The Home Page includes any new status posted,*

Change the {;} to a comma <,>

>>>Changes in the information about any user is also posted here, the most frequently changing being that of "relationship status", which could say something about the unpredictable personalities of those who use social networking sites.

I'm not sure that this is explained sufficiently - there is a difference between the Home Page and a users Wall. Also, I don't think {unpredictable personalities} is the best way to describe a change in romance . Amongst my friends I've not noticed anything frequent in changes of relationship status - it may be more to do with your peer group nsb!

>>>Any of these pieces of information can be commented on here, as such this is where the "heart and soul" of Facebook can be considered to be since this is where information is primarily shared.

This bit is ok! except you don't need the {such} and the " ..." around heart and soul.

Keep on making little bits of editing nosebagbear, - it still needs polishing up a bit.

cheers, will be done as soon as i have found my chocolate raisons

all done except for one quibble, when you say the list (your 2nd point) should be seperated by commas not semi-colons. I may well be wrong (my english gcses didnt go terribily well) but i always thought that sections of lists were seperated by commas for single words or semi-colons for sentences.
In any case cheers for the comments, i will do some further editing tonight.

Well you could leave the paragraph with the semi-colons as you have done and wait for a sub-editor to decide what looks best. Bullet points might be fine as well.

cheers, poor subbie having to put my work into guide ML

I think as long as you get the text as clearly written as possible, and there is nothing too wrong with the grammar they would be ok about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8136395.stm

This article lists real life examples of people who've got into trouble for things on their facebook profiles. Might be useful.

cheers, added a couple of the best entries.
I've also put it through a spell checker and got rid of another 15 mistakes

Would it be worth adding a comparison between Facebook and h2g2? I've used Facebook a bit, and it doesn't seem to offer much over h2g2 other than the ability to upload photos.

hmmm, maybe but that might make a good entry in itself as h2g2 could be covered in a good amount of detail whereas if I do a little one here it would create overlap. If this one goes through than i might do a dedicated comparison entry between all social networking sites (which h2g2 has a slight middle class hint of)

I agree with that Gnomon - h2g2 is a much more intellectual medium than FB.

Another comparison would be that whilst Facebook is for real life friends, family and aquaintances to keep in touch with each other - h2g2 links strangers, thereby allowing people to make 'new' friends and chat with people they would not otherwise have the chance to meet.