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

The piece on "shy bladder syndrome" prompted me to write this bit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A576128

It seems awfully short, but I'm not really sure what else would be useful info to include. I'd eventually like to post this to Peer Review, but would like some feedback first on whether it needs additional content.

Thanks!


Mikey

Hey, all -- it's been a few days and no response here. Do you think I'd get more of a response if I changed the title to "$%#! My penis is shrinking!"?????


Mikey

Perhaps you just don't have loony's... "touch"...

I can throw a few comments your way on specifics, but in general I think I'd like to see more information in the entry, and less reliance on external links. Linking to an explanation on "culture bound syndromes" is fine - but linking to an explanation and defintion on koro itself - well, isn't that the point of the entry? Perhaps a section on "Further Information", detailing where each link is directed, and what may be found there?

Oh, and the sentence "It's a pathological fear that the genitals are shrinking into the body, eventually resulting in death" has two possible meanings, so could you clarify it one way or the other?

Interesting phenomenon, and entry. Can't the human mind muck up in so many different ways?

OK, I've expanded it somewhat, and fixed that confusing sentence in the beginning. Quite frankly, I'm not sure what else I could add at this point. As far as the links go -- the entry now contains more info than several of the links. I just like to have the links in there so that people can see the info presented in different ways. Plus, several of the links have case studies, etc.

Anything else?

Mikey

Well - if there *is* a self-help group or such, then that'd be handy - the entries you linked to are fairly technical, so it'd be good to get something from a victim (or ex-victim)'s perspective.

Ethnographic psychologists - presumably analyse differences *between* cultures??

I'll just mention links again - for EG, the fact that _witchcraft_ is underlined made me think that it was a link to a website or entry on witchcraft, where as it's actually a news story which includes witches. In general, I reckon it's best for a link to tell you exactly what it's linking to - rather than it being a surprise...

I didn't mean get rid of the links - just don't leave stuff out of the entry just because they're in the links!

Nope, no self-help groups or anything like that -- those are pretty much the purvey of western society, not rural China. The victims of koro are often illiterate, and I've definitely never seen anything online written or told from a victim's perspective.

Ethnographic psychologists don't compare cultures, per se -- that would be cultural anthropologists. Ethnographic psychologists specialize in things like culture-bound syndromes. The only comparisons come into play when they are trying to determine why disorder X appears in culture A and not in culture B.

I've changed the links around some, and am also adding some. Let me know what you think if you get a chance!


Mikey

I suppose as soon as you find out about koro, you're cured, so there wouldn't be much point...

I suppose I should ask whether there are any diseases/whatever that *can* cause your penis to shrink. But I really can't think of anything else - though I'm still a little unconvinced about the links () - why not try it in Peer Review?

OK, PR thread is at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=123064 thanks for the help, lucinda! :) Mikey

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'The h2g2 Writing Workshop' to 'Koro - the genital retraction syndrome'.

This Conversation has been moved because thias entry has now been recommended by a Scout from Peer Review.