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

and they were very much appreciated, shagbark. Let's have more of them.

Sorry if I opened a with this forum, but I think it is good to get things out in the open at some point and the writing guidelines looked a bit BBC to me.

I think it might be good for people here to come clean about who will really make these decisions.

It's the Board of course. They put their hands in their pockets to buy it and now run it..though it appears with entirely volunteer labour...well sort of entirely..I imagine the Noesis staff like Brian, still get paid.

It's yet another unending discussion that the final decision that will be made entirely by the Board.

I prefer to face facts.

Nah nah, Gnomon. What shagbark wants to do is write a poem for Create...

A87725613

I have already written a couple for the Post
but I like the non-fiction articles too.

>> I heard it as being about making US writers more comfortable here, but there seemed to be other reasons too.

I mentioned the writer's voice, and I guess it depends on whether you consider "voice" being something you speak with - in which case it would be about making writers more comfortable - or something you hear.

It's good to hear writers' voices with less translation and less coming between me and them.

But Gnomon is right, the people appointed by NPL to make these decisions consulted with others, presumably based on their experience and contribution, and made the decision. For what it's worth, I wasn't consulted, but I didn't expect to be: I've never been a Guide volunteer and it's years since I put anything into Peer Review.

Maybe I should check over at Create and see what's shakin'

>>t's yet another unending discussion that the final decision that will be made entirely by the Board.

No, the decision has already been made. It was made by the Guide Editors, not by some faceless NPL owners. You can look up our names if you want, on the h2g2 Guide Editors page.

Are you certain of that Gnomon?

I mean what *real power* do Guide editors have?

Hypothetical...It's looking like Guide editors have made a decision which means profits are down...Board meets.

(If I'm on the Board I'm going to say, 'Hey I'm sitting on the board of a private company...I'm going to vote to change their decision...I think their priorities are all wrong..we aren't a bloody charity..or co-op).

Have you ever seen Not Panicking LTD operate that way or are you just conjuring hypothetical situations, based on your past life experience?

I'm going on my understanding of how every singlle private company I've ever come across operates...

ie the bottom line.

It's called capitalism...ie we aren't a bloody co-op or charity.

If people want to live in fairy land though, fine by me...as I say I prefer to face what my brain tells me is reality.

(I won't post here again tonight though as I might be done for 'flooding' again).

Effers, that's not how the site is run. NPL do have ultimate say, but as Gnomon pointed out this particular decision was made by the EG Eds i.e. active researchers who have alot of EG experience and have stepped into that role. Yes NPL have the ultimate say, but afaik they're not making the operational decisions in the way that you are saying. They've handed that level of control to the Senior Volunteers (or the Core Group who hand it to the Seniors, something like that). I'm sure they still discuss much with the SVs but IMO that's not where the issue lies. The issue lies in the structure of the teams and the decision to have so many processess offsite.

Gnomon, no-one is saying that this should be a solely British site, and you are missing the point if you think that that is what this is about. Also, no-one has said that you or anyone should have to ask *every* last researcher for their opinion, and quite frankly expressing that kind of sentiment just makes things worse and makes me wonder if you would just prefer if the community wasn't involved at all.

The main conversation that led to the decision was afaik the one on noesis, which specifically excluded many people. I was told at the time that many of these decisions would be brought back to the community in the form of discussion documents or such, and that just hasn't happened. Whether that matters or not I don't know, but I don't think you can then complain when the decision is discovered (and not even Announced) and people have questions or challenges about it.

Whether what you say is true or not, in this case, though, the aim of the Guide Editors and the Board is the same - to build the Guide up to being the Best Guide in the World, the one that everyone turns to if they want to know what, where, how or why.

>>I don't think you can then complain when the decision is discovered (and not even Announced) and people have questions or challenges about it.

I'm not complaining.

The decision hadn't been announced because we hadn't got around to implementing it yet. We're very busy at the moment and there are lots and lots of things to do. No Entries have yet been published under this new House Rule.

Fair enough Gnomon I just think that the SVs would save themselves some grief if the community was involved more.


>>It's called capitalism...ie we aren't a bloody co-op or charity.

Isn't the overriding organisation the Foundation? Which is not-for-profit? And NPL was the commercial part of that set up to run the website because we needed to generate income and use a business model (ie. the site wasn't going to survive on sweetness and light)?

(Ben will have the diagrams and explanations of the structures up at some point).

Yes well nothing survives on sweetness and light...and that sounds appalling.

I'm just going on the fact the we are now owned by a Limited company. And without exception in my life, every single one I came across was to do with making money.

I would expect if a decision would go the way of English English or American English...and one was shown to be more profitable that would be the one chosen.

I'm not complaining. Just want some full on honesty.

(I may one day invest in h2g2 myself if it looks good. My investments in China aren't doing as well as I hoped.)

And there we have it. The truth about why the change has happened. Gnomon wants it, so Gnomon gets it.

"I've always felt bad telling American writers that they have to rewrite their well-written entries in what is for them a foreign spelling."

"I'm sub-editing more than 50% of the entries at the moment. I'd like not to have to change spellings."

I, I, I...



"Anyway, it was discussed and it was decided and that is the end of it."

Except clearly it's not as I see the thread has rumbled on.

I'm glad I can finally say it outloud. Gnomon is the reason I won't write any more entries for this site. I'd had serious concerns about his possessive attitude to entries, changing things to be wrong, finally changing them back but insisting he's still right but can't prove it () and frankly I don't trust him with any of my entries. I had gone so far as to contact the old Editors before now with my worries and I know other Researchers have also had concerns, and when I heard he'd been put up as an Editor for the Guide I knew it was all over for me to write for this site.

I won't go so far as to remove my entries(which I have been told is now possible but am not sure) but it's all about Gnomon, really. *he* doesn't like the Guidelines so he's changed them. *he* really can't be bothered to change the spellings on the entries he edits. *his* attitude has slowly become all seeing, all powerful and he'll do what he likes.

Which is a shame because I used to consider us friends before this attitude got so bad. Or maybe it was always there, he just couldn't 'set it free' until the BBC's caretaking dropped to a certain level. After all, he's often said (rather pompously) that he was already writing the Guide *himself* (yes, all by himself) when he found the site. Well, now he's got it all to himself.

I've tried to write this so it doesn't break the rules, I have nothing to say about Gnomon personally, just the way I see h2g2 being treated like one person's personal playground and now he appears to own it.

>>And there we have it. The truth about why the change has happened. Gnomon wants it, so Gnomon gets it. <<

>>but it's all about Gnomon, really. *he* doesn't like the Guidelines so he's changed them. *he* really can't be bothered to change the spellings on the entries he edits. *his* attitude has slowly become all seeing, all powerful and he'll do what he likes.<<

That's not true. It was discussed pre transition on Noesis. I took part in the discussion. I'm all for accepting the correct American spelling. I've always thought it a joke to 'correct' valid spelling.

I accepted that the site was a mere UK site when the BBC owned it. Now we were promised to open up for other nations. I'm dismayed to see that so many people from the UK are insular in their heads and demand the site remains insular, too.

The Guidelines were PRE BBC. Did everyone miss that when I said it before?? As far as I can see, Douglas was English, wrote his books in English, and his Guide was written in English.

Yes it was translated for other language readers. But still, his work was English.

And I know we're not a fan site, but you can't make use of HHGTTG name and associations and ignore where it came from.