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

Thanks for the Front Page link Eds

Updating our existing content is important - in fact it's getting *more* important - and we're looking to make it more of a feature on the front page. We'll see what gets said by the Community, take on board the comments and then we'll try something out, whatever that may be. It won't be spectacular and it might not please everyone but some important issues re: updating have been raised recently and so we'll see if we can't make it more of a feature on site.

big ears

I'd like to say that I think Updates will get more attention if they are in PR. I do try to comment in Update forum when I can, but because not many updates are put in, it's easy to forget to visit, but it would need more attention from the Eds as well, because it's not very encouraging to write an update and then have to wait months for something to happen. I appreciate things are busy and people are away, and that's not the fault of the Eds (or 'Ed') but it's also not the fault of the authors and can be very off-putting.

hello am tom am bored are you

Any more thinking on this issue?

Yes: F66057?thread=4130156

My thinking is that we should get this idea moving. At the moment, I'm personally quite nervous of doing updates, because they're not getting reviewed very much and I could quite easily be updating Entries which are full of errors. You can see that broelan is a bit fed up with the process as it is as well, and we shouldn't be putting off good Researchers. Let's get the Update process changed, pronto.

My feelings too. Elentari has just put an excellent update of the York Entry into the Update Forum (well, not just, but recently) and I think it would stagnate in the UF as it is now.

Let's get some action here, it could only do the EG good really.

Here's an idea -

How about I take my Seaweed Update from the Update Forum and put it into Peer Review with the Subject line UPDATE?

I'll put a little by-line in about what the suggestions about the Update Forum are and see what response is garnered.

It is all very well talking about the Update Forum, but not all the Researchers who contribute a great deal to new ideas are subscribed to both the UF and Feedback.

Perhaps that way we'd get more of a community response about the concept of merging the UF with the PR?

And indeed, to see if it work ok.

AS said I can't see it working any differently to either a Flea Market Rescue or Uni Project

If the Eds agree to this then, we'll need to go through the UF and see what's current - we can notify the authors and let them know to move their Entries into PR with the title 'Update - ....' The Italics would need to close the UF and make an announcement. We'd also need someone to come up with some text explaining how to do an update in the manner we've discussed, perhaps to go on the old UF page?

I'm in the middle of Post editing at the moment, so won't have time to go through UF until the weekend, though if no one else is game I'm happy to do so then.

How does this sound, Italic chaps?

Or you could do that

I'm happy updating the Update Forum page with the necessary info to come in line with the way Flea Market Rescues and Uni Projects are submitted to PR (in fact I think the Uni Project page probably needs updating too to be honest).

I've time on my hands a present (between jobs) so can do all this kind of stuff and nonsense

So, if the Eds give me the okay, I'll pop UPDATE - Seaweed into PR, and see what happens

Hello there,

Thanks for this - I reckon we should do a test run with the seaweed Entry, and then we can start sorting out the UF (/begging for your help) once we see how it works. Go for it, Matt!

Thanks very much for your help, folks!

h2g2 Editors

Will do

Oh and here's what I have so far on the 'new' updating process. Keener eyes than mine might like to have a trawl though it - A26108886

I'll leave it in your hands, Matt - give me a shout if there's anything I can do. I'll find the PR conversation and subscribe to it so it can be updated when necessary

Okay Rich

Have a look at the Updated Updating Process if you like, and see if you agree with the changes I've made to the page.

I've only just seen this discussion, since I wasn't subscribed to the Feedback top level.

When Jimster handed the managing of the Update Forum to the curators, I devised the method for doing it, and for a long time I was the only curator who actually did the updates. I had hoped that updates could be processed in record time, a day or two maximum. But with only one or two people actually commenting on the entries, I didn't feel happy about rushing through the entries.

Then my father-in-law was sick, came to live with, went into hospital and died. I lost interest in the update forum, so there was nobody doing the updates at all. Skanyrich took on the task, but he has little time to spare, so again it became something that only got done occasionally.

If everybody agrees that an update is ready to go, there is really not a big deal to processing it, using the procedure I outlined in the Curators' group. The biggest stumbling block is certainly getting comments from people. So I hope this initiative helps in that respect.

I've made a list of h2g2 pages that would need changing if the Update Forum is de-evolved;

UpdateForum (naturally. possibly with a rewrite this page A496451 could be used instead)

<./>DontPanic-ReviewForums</.>

PeerReview

Writing-Workshop

Writing-FleaMarket

The Front Page links

The submission to forum section

Gnomon -

The task of Updating, I feel, shouldn't be up to just a handful of people (or just one!), that's why I felt that for a more user-friendly system it would work much beter going through PR.

As you are aware, I do quite a number of Updates - and I've never been unhappy with the process up until more recently when it has become obvious that there needs to be more Entries available for the Editors to promote on the h2g2 Front Page.

By making the Update Process something more community based, rather than a little off-shoot that many considered too much trouble to invest time and energy into, I'm hoping that more interest will be taken in Updating some of the older h2g2 Entries that to be quite honest are really very poor.

Some of the old stuff is brilliantly pithy, but some is just dismal.

With a higher profile, and quicker and easier and more community based feel towards updating, perhaps it will help even the lesser experienced EG writers contribute towards the EG in Peer Review.

Hopefully it won't discourage the badge hunters too much, as there isn't really any 'reward' for updating (although if this runs as it should the Updates will get full Front page coverage) - but I'm all for things that mean h2g2 isn't as secular as it's sometimes imagined.

I won't be able to give a long post as I am currently recovering from the honour of being called a top-shelf writer by Elentari. But I can say I think this is an excellent idea. I have a 'note to self' on PS to update an entry but I really wouldn't fancy it under the current system.