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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A601372 It's a very personal experience and rich in typos, but... I think there might be a place for it in the Edited Guide. Bob Dodd (U180609) posted it into the Writing Workshop as http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F57153?thread=130806 and seems to have left the place. What do y'all think?

I say put it in the guide as it stands, typos and all, it makes incredible reading.

whisky

I second that.

Ditto, except it might be quite nice to know what a gurney is!

Speachless!

A place should definitely be found for it somewhere in the guide.

I found the statue of the prisoner in the garden near the shower block amazing. Gaunt, starving and yet so dignified. (I think there's a photograph on the tourist brochure.)

This one deserves many readers -- it could get more if there were headers. I think the structure of the text would allow that.

I definately think this should go in the guide.

It brought back a lot of memories of my visit there.

People please remember: It IS already in the guide.

I agree: As much people as possible should read this.

But: I do not think it's suited for the edited guide.

Besides the usual guideline no-no's, there are some errant parts in there - just as an example - e.g. the purple triangle was used to mark homosexuals and not jehova's witnesses. Red triangles were used to mark communist political prisoners... The occurrance of errant facts in the text is probably because the text is a transcript from the authors diary - i.e. from his memory and not a 'researched' text. Small misconceptions and small mistakes are amplified by the seriousness of the subject, for that reason I think that an article on the Dachau concentration camp should be better researched.

Another thing: The title of the entry should be changed to make clear that it's about the concentration camp and not about the city of Dachau.

HELL

Actually, that's a good point, if it is to go in the edited guide it needs tidying up a tad.

But as far as I knew the pink triangle was for homosexuals. I'll have to research now...

How about a title change to
"Personal recollections of avisit to Dachau Concentration Camp"

and if someone fancies trying out a cold - factual entry on the camp, the two could be interlinked - solving any inconsistancy problems in this one.

But i think, as it is a personal recollection, it would be wrong to change the text, - if no-one wants to write the factual entry then how about adding a couple of footnotes at the sub ed stage, correcting any factual errors.

PS Sorry Hell, but I still stick to my original comment, get it in the edited guide as it stands - warts and all.


whisky

PPS, for an excellent example of how articles can end up in the guide, in the first person, and with spelling mistakes, see:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A642142 (recommended)

You don't have to be sorry Whisky, just because our oppinions differ.

I think there is still a great difference between this one and the '1940 London...' entry. - I would not have recommended that one too by the way, but that's just me.

If an entry like this makes it to the edited guide or not depends also on the mood of whoever makes this decision on a particular day... So...

I will not run amok if this one gets into the edited guide. It's a great entry, and if the title is changed to make clear it's about a personal viewpoint, OK.

I am just afraid that it could serve as a precedence case for other personal holiday recollections to get into the edited guide.

Anyways,

HELL

I have trouble recommending it. Here's why:
I wrote an entry on York a while back, it got put in the edited guide. The difference is astounding.
Before: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A442513
After: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A577055

Now, after my experience scouting, I disagree that it should have been put into the Edited Guide. There were too many first-person references. It is a personal holiday story. I visited York on my first (and only) visit to the UK from the US. For the scouts, look back into the h2g2scouts archives and look at messages 2425, 2430 and anything after that with Crescent's Pick #1, most especially 3289.
There was a big debate on it, and most were against it. In the end, Sam put the big OK on it, after saying that he would almost reject it.

In the end, this entry gives more about the author's personal experience than truth. I say no.

Well, I'm thinking of this one as one of the 'Living with a cyst in my brain' sort of entries (personal experiences which you can't avoid *and* which contain lessons to be learned) but anyway, I've asked the Towers to remove the thread from PR. Perhaps Whisky will take over?

What's the Towers?

(I'm an American; don't blame me! )


*Michael Notforyou*
Official Scout, h2g2
Researcher U113408

***One of these days, I'm going to learn how to create a h2g2 signature.***

'The Towers' is an allusion to DNA's books because that was the place where the staff of editors for the HHTTG resided. Some more acronyms are the PTB (the Powers That Be), or the 'Italics' (just look at how their names appear in conversation postings)

I agree - this is incredible reading, but it's not really suitable for the Edited Guide, for the reasons stated above. As has been said, though, it is already in the Guide, and will remain so unless the author decides to withdraw it, which I hope won't happen.

I'll move this thread back to the entry.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'A visit to Dachau'.

hmm... how about giving it a little typo polish and submitting it to the Post?