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

I posted this yesterday in the Writing Workshop, got a little feedback that ran along what I was thinking, edited it a little, and I do believe it's ready for showtime.

It's my first entry for editing.

Cheers,
Thes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A552179

First off -- if an entry has been in the Writing Workshop, it's generally a good idea to post the discussion thread from the writing workshop along in the peer review thread -- this lets us see what other people have said, and keeps us from being repetitive and redundant.

That being said, this is an interesting entry. I think the whole TiVo concept is pretty amazing myself. However, I think there may be a problem in that this entry is not what I think we would call "balanced". There are both editorial and legal reasons why it's important for entries covering a product or service to be balanced. To make this entry more balanced, you might consider:

1) Right now you only talk about how wonderful the system is. However, I know there are definitely people who've been very disappointed. It's generally a good idea to discuss both the pros and the cons of something.

2) The entry should also probably have at least a paragraph concerning the other systems on the market that do the same thing. I realize that this is an entry on TiVo, not other systems, but it would be worth mentioning that TiVo isn't the only system, and maybe some sentences comparing TiVo to what else is out there.


Mikey

Oh -- I don't remember if you mentioned this, but another thing worth getting into is whether this is something that is available internationally, or whether it's only available in certain areas. And does it matter if you have antenna, cable, or satellite TV? or which cable provider you use?


Mikey

It doesn't matter which cable provider you use, and I do believe that was clear in the original entry. I have included a new sentence on the DirecTV boxtop incorporation that they've been doing, and an explanation of how it would work with an antenna system.

The entry is about TiVo, and so I have included, at the bottom, some links to the main competitors, ReplayTV and UltimateTV, but I have also put that in context; I included a bit about why TiVo overtook Replay, when Replay did it first (though it wasn't the only reason; the linux/hacking thing was also a big part of it; the hackers liked tivo, they bought them for themselves, the friends of the hackers noticed that the geeks had the tivos, they got interested, it spread that way, like lichen). Additionally, I included a link to UltimateTV, though I mention why UTV is destined to fail (aside from being from Microsoft).

If other researchers do items on Replay or UltimateTV, I'll happily add references to them, but as you say, it is more about TiVo; the original title was 'How the TiVo Will Change Your Very World' and was highly biased and focused

If you send people who have been disappointed in TiVo by me, I'll talk to them. But the thing is, the only guy I know who complains about TiVo is a cranky guy in California who owns 3 vcrs and complains because all his friends have become 'part of some TiVo cult'.




Thes.

(cultist)

Good entry, although it could be more subjective. One big con is the initial cost to buy the unit - at least in the UK its over 300 pounds, over double that of a vcr. It is quite revolutionary though, so maybe worth the extra bucks.
What about the effect on advertising? I've read that since people can skip ads so easily, there may be a big shift to in-programme advertising (did you ever see that in the Truman Show? haha!!). Could this give undue influence to advertisers, since channels are so dependent on their income?? Who knows

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F57153?thread=113124 is the forum for the writers workshop, and it does indeed mention some of the downsides of the tivo. also, i did not remember spotting a link to the article in this thread, so here it is http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A552179

I have just re-edited this (minor changes) to make it less pro-tivo (aside from the footnote), and to further clarify some of the things people have asked in questions.

I really don't think some of the anti-tivo things that have been brought up (though I was really interested in hearing them) were quite right for the entry; they'd be correct to cross link to if you wrote an entry about them, but as comments I wasn't really up to sitting down and doing loads of research into how to set up your computer to do what a TiVo can do. I have a TiVo that *does* it, you see.

I have, however, done some research into the other options that were available for digital recording devices. As you can see from my entry, they did make me decide I'd made the correct decision in my purchase, if nothing else I provided links to their sites for people to make their decisions.

I also added a new section addressing the privacy issue, which seemed to be of concern to people, so I included to info on opting out of the info collection, as well as what info really is collected at this time.

I did not address price issues because after doing conversions, I found the £399 40-hour unit available in unit is pretty comparable to the 60-hour $699 one that's available in the US. Yes, it does cost more, but not so much more that it's a big 'they're ripping the brits off; that should be noticed' sort of thing. It wasn't an exorbitant amount more; though I admit the price is a barrier to some people. It's new technology; everyone didn't have VCRs in the first 3 years they were out, either.

Now I want one of these as well as a DVD player!
Oh well

I really like this entry, it's a good introduction to something about which I know absolutely nothing, and well written.
I don't quite follow the second point you make in your bullet points at the start, but that's just me being inept.

I tweaked it for you. You might find it a little more clear now. Sadly my cut & paste seems to have messed up and lost the old version, so I can't cut it here so you can compare the two.

But if you understand this, then I did my job, right?

Oh sod, where'd the moderators take this one!
Now I'll have to wait for it

great entry - much more balanced, and very informative

Thespian, I understand that bit now!
cheers

New edit (since this is still in peer review after a month, and I'm not sure why....hello???)

TiVo was given a patent last week for the PVR technology, so I added a link to the US patent office and information on the patent #.

that's cool.

you just have to wait now, for a scout to recommend it.
It will happen, it might just take a little while

You claim that you can't enter a link to the patent directly 'due to a limitation of GuideML' when actually it's simply because you haven't formatted the URL properly. Find the URL for the page - it'll contain a lot of ampersands (&). Each one of these, even when inside the HREF="..." attribute, will need to be escaped, so change them to & The reason for this is that GuideML is an XML language which *must* be well-formed, and in well-formed XML you can't have an ampersand on its own - the ampersand symbol is only used to start an entity (like é for example) and is invalid for any other reason. Hence, to pass the ampersand through the GuideML, you have to use & instead. For example, to link to this thread, instead of typing: Link to thread You'd type: Link to thread Try it - if the edit page doesn't complain then it has worked. This may seem odd, but actually it will work in any properly written HTML browser (even though HTML doesn't need to be well formed, browsers will understand the & in the URL and convert it to a simple & when actually fetching the link).

You learn something new every day...

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

If they have not been along already, the Scout who recommended your entry will post here soon, to let you know what happens next. Meanwhile you can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

what happens next? mainly, you wait. when your entry is finished being edited, you'll get emailed, but please keep in mind that it can take awhile for the Subeds to finish with it. then, you can go and have a look at your entry to see what it has become. thanks for writing for the Guide, and for making your reccommendation! you know without the reccommendation and putting-onto-of Peer Reveiw, it can't get Edited at all! so you really did do a lot towards helping the entry get in. excuse the rmbling; i've been and it's very late here. much later than i should in fact be staying up, but i just can't seem to log off. whoops; there i go again.