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

don't you dare stop writing GB!! You're an inspiration for loads of folk, along with gnomon, Fizzy, B'el and countless others. You obviously enjoy what you do, no-one could be so prolific if they didn't.
When it comes to commenting I'll only comment on content if I know something about the subject or after reading up on a subject/topic I'm not sure about. I'll comment on grammar and puctuation now and again but as my own isn't exactly the best I'm wary of doing that unless it's really obvious its wrong.

*breaks out new pack 's, sends over to GB's PS.*

Speaking for myself, I too have been guilty of the 'Oh, it's GB [or whichever established writer it might be] it'll be fine.' That might make me less likely to read it, purely because I think it won't need anything doing to it. That said, if I find the topic interesting I'll still read it if I can, if only to say that I think it's fine.

I'll add my name to those who don't want to see you taking a break on our account, GB. Keep up the good work!

"Rich I think it was FM (who isn't here) and Jordan that were disliking the entry"

What? Your entry? I never said anything about your entry. I haven't even *read* your entry.

"If the site is suffering from overexposure to GB then maybe I need to retire from writing, and just review and sub and Curate away in the background for a while."

It's most definitely not! Your honey entry's bloody fantastic.

I think -

Scouts need to be more assertive - if they can't find an entry to pick - then don't pick.

Scouts need to be in PR more - I'm convinced that some scouts do nothing more than turn up and click the x once a month.

As we've gone on to GB's constellations - I have read about 6 and possibly commented on 2 - it's not because I think GB can do it OK, but because I am not interested in astronomy or astrology. I've lain on my back on a Greek Island and thought - "Wow look at all those stars, no wonder the ancients built pictures out of them." Beyond that - nothing - de nada - nowt. Whether or not I comment or even read entries in PR is up to me - I hold no posts, and I've made no promises, perhaps some of the people who so proudly stick badges on their home page should think about the responsibility that goes with them.

I also think the Beeb sells h2g2 very short - they've got radio stations up and down the country who should be agitating for local entries relevent to their area, who should be looking for local researchers to involve in community productions.

I don't think it's a 'pan-GB problem', though that's a good turn of phrase! Mina and I have both mentioned a lack of reviewers on our submissions, and have both said that we've become at least a little disheartened as a result. I think there's a good, and to some extent justifiable, reason for this.

It was fairly infrequent, even when I was most active in PR, that I was able to comment on every single Entry that was in there. So I had to choose what to read and comment on, and what to leave to other people. I'd usually read and comment on the entries I felt I could have most input with - entries that I had a good knowledge of the subject matter of, or new Researchers who needed encouragement. As I'm fairly ignorant of a large number of subjects, this meant that I'd tend to leave entries by Gnomon, GB, Mina, ST and people like that for others, because I knew I'd spend a lot of time reading and finding that everything was pretty much fine. I worked much harder with the likes of BobStafford and Opti in their early days, and I like to think that as a result we've got a few more good writers. I think I worked with those who needed the most help, and felt quite strongly that that was part of my job as a Scout - to be as welcoming to new EG writers as the ACEs are to new Researchers.

I mentioned earlier about whether we always have to choose between ideals, and ideally I'd have done both. I'd have worked with new writers and encouraged and critiqued the old hands. With only a certain amount of time available, though, I had to choose - and it was not about 'assuming it doesn't need it because I display a 100 solo EGE badge on my PS' but because I felt that any new writer could be the next 'big name' writer in time.

I'm sure I'm not the only Scout that took this view, and it's not derogatory to the good writers; far from it, because if I didn't leave a comment, I generally felt the writer was good enough that my attention was more productively focussed elsewhere.

That isn't a problem as long as there are plenty of reviewers. For my first couple of years as a Scout, you'd never notice that I rarely commented on the prolific writers, because everything was still getting plenty of reviews. If a number of Scouts take this view, though, and the number of reviewers drops, you're going to start to get just a few reviews for prolific writers.

That may be right or wrong but, when it comes to the autumn, if I have time to start being in PR regularly again, I'd take the same standpoint. I'd rather see one of my own Entries uncommented on while a newbie gets some serious encouragement any time. I know mine is fairly likely to end up on the FP and be read by far more people there anyway.

You know, the thing that got me started in PR was a general request somewhere on the front page that readers try and review at least one entry a day in PR. It's a perfectly reasonable level of involvement for someone with a day job. I haven't so far been able to sustain that though and require periodic jolts to get started again.

I feel somewhat jolted now and believe I'll get back to it.

Apologies again Jordan, I read in your post that you were agreeing with him - and that wasn't so, you were agreeing that he should say it anywhere.

I agree he should say it - but think he should say it somewhere relevant and that is in the PR thread of the entry - not in the PR thread of a totally unrelated entry.

Paliaway - you might think that reading and commenting on one entry a day in PR is a reasonable level of involvement for someone with a day job - that's a bit sweeping and it's the kind of comment that can discourage someone like me.

I need about 36 hours a day to fit in my current responsibilities (and I'm not the only one) as a full time working mum of two not-yet-teens as well as a person in my own right. I do have other hobbies and interests other than h2g2 and sometimes can't comment for weeks on end. Sometimes it's just because I'm collapsed in a heap at the end of my day.

Does that mean I should give up h2g2? No. What we need is that people don't take on too much and get disheartened when they can't keep up with their "reasonable level of involvement". Everyone is different and we all have to acknowledge that.

For what it's worth: I have clicked on entries several times recently to find something covered in cobwebs, sometimes with an elvised writer. When I was a scout we were pretty active in getting things out of PR if the writer wasn't involved. Isn't this happening now?

How about, similar to the 7 day incubation, if there is no activity by the writer within a specified period (14 days might be good - a bit longer over Christmas and summer when people are often away) then it gets taken out of PR.

Because if I inadvertantly click on that Yate entry once more I am going to do serious damage to something or someone close by me at the time.

I'll try and go through PR today, Sho, but I'm so far behind with other responsibilities here that I can't promise.

I'm not the only Scout though, so if someone else would like to email the Group and poke a few cobwebs, that would be nice. I like what McKay said about badge = responsibility. If the Scouts aren't in PR or cleaning house or picking etc., (job description) - for a whole month (?) they should begone.



Thanks for the encouragement folks,

the thing about commenting on one entry a day is that it seems reasonable, but I haven't been able to do it for very long at a time. Perhaps it's more of a reasonable goal and less of a sustainable level for one with a day job. But I'll keep trying. I did best when I used to print an entry, any entry, in the morning and then read it over lunch.


I have nothing to do with Yate, btw, and I will appreciate not being slapped even if I happen to be within slapping range.

(another simulpost? busy busy busy)

Well, the Yate entry has been suggested for flea market.

I am guilty of not having been very active in PR as of late, there are too many others things that keep me busy. I only realised now that the list is down to two dots.

Maybe time to write an entry once again.

Hmmm - somehow, I usually end up in PR only when I've got an entry there myself. So either I need to change that or write more

But honestly, I'm not sure I should put in the two entries that are nearest to being ready, since they're about people - scientists most people haven't ever heard of, Mileva Maric Einstein and Benjamin Banneker. That would make them "potted biographies of Z-list celebrities", right? I'd rather write no entries than the wrong ones, to keep from cluttering the site up.

Oh please, submit them, those are the kind of entries that *I* love, go on, go on, go on!

I felt I couldn't be responsible as a Scout any more, so gave it up.

I also don't feel that unknown scientists qualify as Z-list celebrities, as they have contributed to humanity, unlike people that seem to be on the covers of magazines for no other reason other than being 'famous', like Paris Hilton, Jade Goody, and the like.

I hate that people feel that the quality of PR has resorted to them not feeling they should contribute to PR. Contribute away, PR is for discussion of the content matter of any subject - so perhaps we shouldn't be discussing the quality of PR, but telling people if they've comments on Entries to do so in PR. The views of the minority should not dictate how h2g2 develops.

Submit them, Mala.

Oh submit them Mala .... you never know when my daughter will need some information from them for her homework.

I'm very very glad that not one of us has control of what goes into the guide - that'd make it very boring indeed

The beauty of the project is that all manner of things are guide material and Scouts are varied enough to select on the basis that they can pick what they enjoy reading, so please don't let any one persons comments put you off submitting to PR - I didn't.

>>I'm very very glad that not one of us has control of what goes into the guide<<

Right! No one person's taste should dictate anything. Yay democracy. Well, we have a benevolent dictatorship on hootoo, anyway

I like King Edwards.

We *were* talking about potatoes weren't we?