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

This is very much a first draft of my first composition for H2G2. Any comments most welcome.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A606836


Otto Fisch.

I'm not sure if it's appropriate for peer review, but I like it. Having maintained a serious relationship at a distance of 120 miles, with no mechanised transport, I can definately agree with what you say, but I would also add that these sort of relationships are definately high maintainance. They take a lot of work to keep going sucessfully.

ps you might want to check your spellings.

Hi Xyroth,

Thanks for your comments. I've put the spelling right and am suitably appalled by my ineptitude. I agree that these things do take a lot of work - but I think it depends on personality and the nature of the relationship. I've added a short section about what kind of relationships could survive distance, but I've only ever been in one LDR, so I don't feel I have the authority to say too much about it.
Perhaps there['s a serial LDR masochist out there somewhere.....

I've made a couple of other changes, but nothing major.

If I understand H2G2 correctly, I'd have to take out the humour and find some more facts about long distance relationships before it would be worth peer reviewing - which I think would probably spoil it.

I think I'll probably leave it in the unedited section to fester!

Thanks again!

Otto.

you don't have to take out the humour (as the joy of sox entry proves), but you might need to make it so that it is not told from your perspective. edited entries should not be written in first person. A few have got through in secong person (they/their, etc) butthey prefer it to be in third person. pop by the peer review page and look at some of the entries to see what I mean.

ps my relationship was fairly serious, and lasted for over nine years, so feel free to ask me anything that you need to know.

In the current form this entry isn't really suitable for PR, for the reasons given by xyroth above. But how about a) offering it to the Post, or b) taking out the fiction (snails etc) and 1st person and having another go?

I enjoyed your article very much but I would prefer to see it divided up a little more visually. At the moment it is one large block of text but you should be able to chuck a few headings in there quite easily, perhaps your observations could be sub-headings? Or a list of pros and cons?

I am in a semi-long-distance relationship where we live together but work away from home during the week so we really just have a weekend relationship. This has its own special stresses and strains so you are welcome to ask me if you want any information from this perspective.

k

Hi Kelli, Bossell....

I think you're both right. This was my first attempt at an entry, and I've since learned a bit about guide HTML and what kind of style is suitable for guide entries. I'm going to try and re-work it, but I think it might be too big for me to take on by myself. I might write something and then invite comments and additions to give it a more collaborative feel. Is it possible to have joint authorship on an article?

TTFN

Otto.

Ok, and yes it is possible: just enter the U-numbers of fellow researchers into the appropriate box at the bottom of the Edit screen. This will make you appear as the 'Editor' but that's only h2g2's way of expressing that you're the owner (in terms of editing rights) of the entry.
Have you already been to the Collaborative Workshop (at /guide/F57152)? It's the place for calls for collaborative efforts.

Although letters are indeed lovely compared to emails, the internet should not be underestimated as powerfull tool in making LDRs much much easier - discovery of icq was great, and the recent move to netmeeting whenever possible is fantastic - especially if your not paying for internet calls after 6 pm or at weekends... 2000 miles has never seemed so "short". Still seems bl***y long though .

vp

Hi VP,

Thanks for your comments. I'm sure you're right about the uses of the internet, but my gf wasn't too good with technology, and types quite slowly. But I can imagine that it would have been useful if we'd both had reliable internet access and similar typing speeds.

Would you be interested in writing something towards the entry about the uses of the internet? Or, indeed, would anybody else like to write something? I'm happy to edit it, but as I say, I think this topic needs more than one approach. I'll go to the collaborative writing workshop soon, but I'd like to offer you (and other contributors to this thread) first refusal.

Best wishes


Otto.

Hey Otto, I would be more than happy to do a bit on internet relations for your entry... once its done, you want it pasted into thread or made into new entry and linked from here?

Hi VP,

Could you paste it into the thread? When I get chance, I'll have a go at updating the rest of the entry, and we'll see if we can knock it into shape for peer review!

Best wishes


Otto.

Well spotted Bossel -I keep thinking I ought to get round to writing some of the things I said I would - thanks for walking by and reminding me of this one... I reckon a bit on internet chat in general, then a focus on trillian, icq, and NetMeeting.... it will make a nice break from my dissertation to be doing it, unlike the other entries I need to write still, which are gonna be kinda heavy going....

Howsit going anyway Bossel?

Afternoon all,

I've come back to this entry recently and tried (and failed) to do some more on it. I've posted it in the H2G2 Long-Distace Love Club for some more feedback, but have come to the conclusion that it might be better as a whole community talking point. I put it forward as a suggestion on Friday, so we'll see what happens....

Best wishes

Otto.

Oh yes, I've seen something on the Collaborative workshop or somewhere else

RL, don't talk to me of RL! There's an important deadline on March 28 which kept me at work till 11pm

11 pm, tcha, thats nothing..
I dont have plans to leave the chemistry lab today until about 8 am

Hey Otto, I recommend you just cut and past my next posting straight into an entry to take a look at, and do tell me if you think it could do with any changes, vp

The pain of long distance relationships can be greatly relieved by the use of the internet.
Telephone calls to foreign countries are very very expensive, sending a letter is often very slow. The internet allows us to send messages all around the world cheaply, and instantaneously. Not only is it possible to chat to one another online by sending messages to one another, it is also possible to talk with one another via microphone and speakers. This entry is a short guide to three of the easiest means of internet communication beyond email.




ICQ

One of the earliest internet chat programs to have the ability to search automatically and tell you if a friend of yours is online at the same time as you areICQ is an acronym for "I seek you". Although this feature is common now, what icq does it let you have a real time text based conversation. That is to say, anything you type (connection speed permitting) appears at the same time on your partners screen as it does on yours.

The abilty to see one anothers typos may not seem particularly useful, but the difference between chatting live and messaging one another can be massive - when you are just text messaging someone over and over again, it is not uncommon to start writing something, then change your mind, delete it, and start again.
In this way information about what you are thinking, and how you are feeling, is lost.

One of the greatest problems with having a serious discussion. or even an argument online, is the flexibilty of the use of language. Not being able to see the glint in someones eye, or indeed that someone at all, can make it much much harder to know whether what that person has just said was deeply sincere, scathingly ironic, just a little joke, or the ending of your relatoinship.

The instantaneous response of icq often helps you follow the thread of your partners thoughts, and can therefore decrease the number of horrible misunderstandings that can occur.

Running ICQ

ICQ can be downloaded for free from here
Run icq2002a.exe, and after installation you will be able to create a new icq account, and start searching for your friends amongst all the current users of ICQ. Once you have found a friend once, but adding them to your contact list you will always be able to see whether or not they are online.

Trillian

Trillian is an amazing little program that impersonates ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, MSM Messenger and IRC at the same time. By setting up connections with all of them, you can message someone no matter what service they are using. Whereas ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and MSM Messenger are all fundamentally systems based on people only talking to to one person at a time, IRC is rather diffent.

Internet Relay Chat is the mother and father of all internet chat programs. It has been around for ages, and is used by thousands of people every day. It is a lot more complicated (and indeed powerful) than any of the other services mentioned, but it is worth checking out as it can lead you to fascinating places.

Running Trillian

Trillian can be downloaded for free from here
Once you have it up and running you can create new accounts or connections for all of the services available from the program itself - it will basically lead you to the relevant registration pages.

Trillian is brilliant becasue it lets you manage many different accounts without difficulty

NetMeeting

Unknown to so many people, Microsoft NetMeeting is part of the huge amount of extra rubbish that you get when you install Internet Explorer onto your machine. NetMeeting allows you to connect to someone elses computer, and then net conference with them. You are able to talk via microphone and speakers/headphones, send text messages, draw basic pictures, and transfer files to the other computer. The drawing program can be particularly good fun - nice for drawing terribe pictres of domestic bliss, or playing noughts and crosses.

If you both have web cams you can also video conference, although this will put a lot of strain on some modems.

Talking with someone using NetMeeting is fantastic - if your sound gear is of good enough quality, then the connection doesnt sound much different from being on the phone, and because you are on the internet, your phone company either charges you local rates, or not at all for the extra time you spend talking to your loved one.

Running NetMeeting

Running a search for NetMeeting on any computer with Microsoft Internet Explorer installed on it will show you where it is. Once you have it running, you will need to go to the help menu and select About Windows NetMeeting. At the bottom of the dialog box your IP address is shown. You then need to email your IP address to your partner, and select Host Meeting from the Call menu. Your partner needs to enter your IP Address into their black box at the top of the window, next to the yellow telephone icon, and then click on that icon. Their computer will then call yours, which will be waiting in a state of readyness to recieve their call. After a few false starts you should be net conferencing.

Your IP address changes every time you log on, so you will need to mail or message it to your partner every time you want to net conference, but its a small price to pay.