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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A586451

I wrote this because I have found there to be a dearth of information on my hometown. I caught a VERY small entry but it really would not be useful to anyone who wanted to know 'the basics' of Rochester. As a frequent user of h2g2 this is the sort of entry I would like to read, and I know others would too.

Baron of Flapjack,

I think that your Entry about your hometown wuold be exactly what the Guide need: A 'Localized' Entry. We need more of them, and I try to support everybody who wants to get a localized Entry into the Guide.

I can't say anything about the facts, but I presume that you have done your homework properly , and I esp. like the length and contents of the Entry.

Now for the things that might be changed:
You started the Entry with some first person reference. That is against the standard rules of the Guide, and in your case, it's absolutely unnecessary. You would dramatically improve this Entry's chances to make it if you change that to third person.

You might also want to change it into GuideML. This is basically very easy. If you have no experience with GuideML or HTML, just call me back via this thread, I'll be glad to help you. The basic thing is that you inclide all the text into ... tags. Use the ... tags for headers and the ... tags for paragraphs.

I have have set up my little 'GuideML Playground', which has hardly any content but uses lots of different GuideML tags. You'll find the Entry at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A513028 and the sourcecode at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/test513028 (see how the 'sourcecode spy' works? ).

Keep in mind: These two things are only formalisms. The content of the Entry is great, and with some 'cosmetics', as mentioned before, I'm afraid it won't be in the Peer Review long enough for me to pick it ...

Jeremy

Excellent article. I agree with the previous comment. It's normal to avoid the first person, but that's easily turned around.

Aren't there remnants of a canal in the downtown area? I remember something about some very clever architecture to use it or work around it.

(I know Fairport and Pitsford quite well. Don't often get into down town Rochester. Letchworth Park is too far away to warrant a mention I suppose?)

I think the ... tags are even generated for you if you go to edit your entry and choose the GML radio button and click the "Change Format" button (this - from memory. The exact buttons may be different.)

Jeremy. Thanks for the reference pages. I have updates the guide using GML. Hope this is a little more attractive. I have also removed the 1st person voices. Hope this helps. thanks again!

I looks much better now, although you have exaggerated the GuideML a bit. I'm afraid it is my fault, as I have sent you to my GuideML playground which contains lots of unordered (=bulleted) lists. Your Entry would look even better if you used ... tags instead of most of the ... tags. These are intended to be used for lists only, not for standard text paragraphs.

Example:

This paragraph was written to demonstrate the use of P-tags, UL-tags and LI-tags. Standard text is put between the P-tags. What follows next is an unordered list, hence the UL-tag at the beginning:
This is where the Unordered List starts:
List Item 1
List Item 2
.
.
.
... and the Unordered List ends here

(End example)

Do you know what I mean? The Subeditors will take care of that anyhow, but they really appreciate if their job is as easy as possible .

Call me if I can help you.

Jeremy

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Rochester, NY'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!