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

For a post contribution, I'd like to nominate this: A52907178 - the pictures should come out well in b/w, and I have a higher resolution available.

That one had crossed my mind, too. I'd second that.

hi all

I have written a document about the future of the Community Artists (including Photographers). Please read it *all* before you comment. I will also post this at the Photographers group and invite them to this conversation.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/15pJp4twN5yK3lhIaht0p8ehVSGUZrmg9k7aih5CPkU0/edit?hl=en_GB&authkey=CMPMxL0I#

Cheers Tav, I'll try to get a look at this later.

Can I be a nuisance though and ask if you can post it as a guide entry or something, too? Google Docs seems to be messing around again.

Thanks for posting it!

The problem is that it has some pictures. I can of course post it as an Entry without pictures.

I can't copy from google groups and I only have part of it as a word doc...

Try downloading it from Google groups on to your PC.

B

It works on IE and I'm just adding the GuideML.

A84885015

it looks well enough thought out and quite well planed

thanks
If you can think of something I forgot please tell me.

Hi Tav
Re Photographers proposal I cant fault the proposal in this thread I am in favour

great, thanks Bob

I don't really see why the Aviators should be treated separately from photography and the artists. All the groups could be put under an entry processing umbrella with a central project hub that each group could use to let each other know what services were needed or in progress. Each group could then have their own sections as a mini site off of that hub.

Each EG/UG entry would then have access to art, photography, audio, video as appropriate. If new entries were automatically sent to the project as part of the PR/acceptance process, the writer of the entry would be able to give the group a clear vision of how they would like the finished entry to appear. Existing entries could be dealt with in a steady, orderly fashion. When existing entries are considered for processing, any text updates could be considered at the same time with appropriate move to the update forum.

It should also be remembered that h2g2c2 have secured several domain names. One of these could easily be utilised as an a/v and image file bank to avoid slowing the speed of the new h2g2 site. It could also be used for the mini sites of the volunteer groups. I see no need for them to be on h2g2 itself since the site would still be h2g2 owned and linked accordingly without a need for the services of sites outside of our control.

Thanks Radox, I'll talk about that with the tech guys. I don't mind if it's the same server or not as long as nobody has to log in and out to get to their group page and as long group forums appear in the 'my conversations' list.

I also agree about the AViators. It just depends on it they want it. I'm just about to find out about that (as you saw).

Somebody else also mentioned the working with the writer. I'm still thinking about what would be the best way to do that. There are 2 possibilities that I see, or three:
a) the writer just leaves a message to the artist about what he wants, problem is that maybe what he wants is not possible
b) when an artist picks an entry he contacts the writer and they talk, problem there is that it could very well slow down the whole process a lot, or maybe it is no problem
c) a combination of both

I used to try and contact the writers of things i made pictures for
the problem is when they go "awol" never to return and you can only wait perhaps a couple of days before you Really need to start sketching something out, especially if the Eds wanted it for the front page

Yes, that's something I also worry about. Maybe giving the writers the possibility to leave a note for the artist is the most practical way. If they don't write a note or if it's just not possible to do it the artist can do what he wants.

Our potential weakness is we do not provide maps, can we do anything about this

That could be an addition to the usual picture. But it's more difficult because we can't just copy a map from somewhere. We'd have to draw them ourselves and in the best case all maps would look the same, too.

Hi Tav, thanks for writing that.

I am in agreement with most of it, but I disagree with this:

"While the working process of the h2g2 photographers is ok, it also is time consuming and does not make sure that all chosen subjects get a picture. The better option seems to be to keep the process of the Community Artists, which means every Volunteer picks an Entry for which they want to make a picture (or more than one if needed). This topic should then be taken and not picked by anyone else. The picture should then be improved with the help of comments by other members of the group, or in the case of photos the best photo could be chosen from a few that have been submitted by a person."

I think anyone who wants to should be able to submit pictures for consideration. Lack of votes has been a problem in the past, I realise, but by only allowing whoever happens to see the entry first to submit an image we are closing the door to a lot of potentially great images. I know I have submitted images before and then seen other people submit much better ones for the same entry.

Other than that I agree with everything.