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

Entry: Tourist Scams in Barcelona - A76763370
Author: Skankyrich - U931109

Part two in a series that's already one longer than I thought it might be.

Brilliant - while a lot of this is common sense, it is possible to be off your guard whilst on holiday

<>great imagealthough a link/footnote might be in order for our non-UK readers?

<>
csam = scam

<>
to your Euro notes.

You have some dashes in there, which will have to be replaced with &mdash; by the sub-ed unless you'd be kind enough to do this

I also love how you've used the smiley in there, I've not seen an h2g2 smiley used in the text before, that I can remember anyway, but if it's not allowed you could always replace it with the special code &hearts;


GB


PS Have you read my Spanish (the Nerja Caves) article also in PR?

Fabulous. I had to read it twice because in the first read through I didn't spot a single thing to amend because I was so interested.
I didn't find anything on the second read though either (other than GB's comments above), so not only is it a compelling read but there were no moments where I had to re-read to get the meaning, or any times when I was confused.

Excellent!

I was thinking of going to Barcelona. Now I don't want to go

It's a great entry and encapsulates what h2g2 ought to be about. Someone who's actually got off their arse and been somewhere and done something that they want to share with the rest of us.

PS: I've just thought of a great idea for a Public Information Film

Another nicely written piece Rich. Well done.


BMT Scout

Hi folks, sorry for the delay in replying, and thanks very much for reading!

I have made all the corrections and am really grateful for the feedback.

The one suggestion I don't agree with is the hyphens to dashes. Technically this is correct but there is not one house style for h2g2 - it would be nice to use all m dashes with no spaces or all n dashes with a space either side - but this isn't really realistic. I'm sure there are entries out there with m dashes that have a space either side (which is incorrect) and entries that use hyphens as dashes (which is also incorrect). Realistically the house style on this is defined by the users who have only a hyphen on their keyboard and can't actually type an n or m dash, and I imagine that in ten or twenty years when web formatting is the standard we'll see the death of dashes altogether. With all that in mind: if the Sub thinks it's important, he or she can change it, but it really isn't necessary in my mind.

Thanks again, all

The dash problem isn't a house-style issue, it's because we've been getting reports from people using different browsers who get a mangled jumble of code where the dash is used

Very useful information, but I wondered why you specified Barcelona? These are common scams that occur in many places.
Would it better with a more generalised title & then refer to specific places within the entry?

I feel the need to add that I enjoyed a week in Barcelona without falling victim to any of these scams. I agree about the fact that these tourist scams being common in a variety of cities not just Barcelona.

That said it's an excellent, and well written article.

Agreed with Teasswill I've been wondering all the time what was strange here.

Barcelona in the title is misleading. It sort of gives the feeling that the Entry's scope is much narrower than it really is. You should make clear in the title that it is a very broadly themed Entry. Then at the start you can say that the Entry was researched in Barcelona but it applies equally well in all touristy places. (Actually you do say something to this effect I believe.)

But to put it in a nutshell, the title makes it look like a much narrower Entry as it actually is. Making it appear like the much broader Entry than it looks like (and much broader it is!) may gather more reader and be useful to more people.

First of all, the dash problem is not a h2g2 problem.

It works like this: the webpage tells your browser what language the pages is written in, so the browser knows what characters to expect. If a character appears that isn't in that language's character set, it will fail the character. The most common cause of this is people writing on a word processor and the program converting the '-' into a '--' - this character isn't recognised by the browser, so it fails. I guarantee you my hyphens will not fail because I only use Notepad++, which does not format dashes. If the Sub wants to change them, fine, but he or she will be wasting his or her time. Trust me.


I wrote this article based on personal experience - the only scam I've written about here that I didn't see in action was the 'Fake Copper Scam', and I was told about that one by an American guy who nearly got taken in by it. I can't vouch for every European city, but the level of petty thefts and scams in Barcelona far surpasses those I've seen anywhere else. My dear old Grandad warned me about it, the guidebooks warn you about it (Lonely Planet are quite specific about places and the reputation of the city as a whole), there are whole websites devoted to Barcelona's scammers and the first bit of advice we were given by our hosts on our last visit was to watch out for pickpockets and petty thieves. I love Barcelona and I hope that is apparent from reading the entry, but it does have a reputation, and I think that reputation is justified.

Of course many of these scams happen elsewhere, and I have noted this in the entry. But I didn't see the same scams, or sheer number of scams, in Amsterdam, London or Lisbon; in Malaga or Santiago you might see the odd heather-seller, or you may get sold timeshare or spun a pilgrim story but the problem isn't as extensive or varied as it is in Barcelona.

I agree with Rich, I have been to Malaga and was only approached by a heather-seller.

I'm happy to let the hyphen thing go, it's not worth arguing about with an author in PR, all I deal with are the reports of foreign characters and gobbledygook at EF when some dashes slip through the net.

Thanks, GB. I haven't seen any of the foreign character threads at EF, but if you do see them let me know and I'll take a look. If it was a genuine problem with hyphens, you'd be able to see the error in simple maths (eg 6-4=2 would also give an error) and also in conversation forums.

will do, 'night hun

'Night GB, and thanks again for all your help and input

these people

Anyone stupid enough to allow a stranger to go through their purse deserves the consequences.

and at many other places - see link

Nearly forgot:

euro/s (various instances)

RE!

This looks like its good to go unless there are any more changes/comments from anyone.


BMT Scout