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

Other things they do include searching for other internal (and, if necessary) external entries to link to, and - of most import in this case - ensuring that the entry meets standard EG format, which includes the GuideML.

Now, if I were to pick up my Sub's badge one more time and was handed this to Sub-Edit in its current form, in addition to all the usual things I would have to do to it, I would have to go through and painstakingly remove all those tags and replace them with conventional tags. Doing this would take a long time and be a complete pain in the a*** and I would seriously consider - quite justifiably - sending it back to the Editors saying "Please could you find some other mug to do this, life's too short - why didn't the Scouts pick up this problem in PR and sort it out before it got picked and sent to me?"

Like researchers, Scouts, ACEs, Gurus and everyone, Sub-Editors are volunteers. Sure, they have a job to do, and it's a very important one. But as volunteers this doesn't, and shouldn't, include going round fixing issues that should have been resolved in Peer Review by everyone else before entries get picked for the Edited Guide. Subs only sub because they like contributing to the EG, and also because (although it involves a lot of routine tasks) it's quite enjoyable.

If subbing stops being enjoyable, we'll have no Subs any more and no Edited Guide either. So why not meet the Subs halfway and format the paragraphs conventionally? If you feel a big block of text is too much, try limiting each paragraph to three sentences or so - that's about right for most peoples attention spans.

And the other thing worth mentioning is if an entry is picked for the EG, a duplicate copy is created and sent to the Sub for subbing. The researcher responsible for the original entry retains control over it as an unedited Guide entry and can do whatever they like with it. So if you format it conventionally and it gets picked, once the duplicate's been created, you could put back all your breaks on the original AND have an Edited version in the official Edited Guide.

Would that suit you?

Why would I want a copy? Once there's a guide copy that's it.


I'll take some out and have a preview. If I like the look, I'll go through the rest.

Aw... but it looks so stupid!

I'm a little confused about all this. Why is everyone so concerned about the line breaks? They're just an unprofessional and distracting format for what is primarily a poorly written entry. If you're going to write 120 posts about this entry--which it certainly doesn't deserve, although I make some allowance since more than half of them appear to be written by the two people who are responsible for the entry--your main point should be that entry doesn't seem to have a very complete understanding or explanation of anything Dragon Ball Z is about. It doesn't even spell the title of the show correctly for example. You said you work for "the post," what post? Anyway, I was thinking about writing an entry for the Dragon Ball series. I just wanted to make sure no one was really considering this entry for editing. Also I wanted to wait until my first guide entry is finished editing to see what I could do better this time around, like keeping it as short as possible. This entry has been sitting here for more than 7 months now and mine only took just 3 weeks to be accepted for editing so I figure this one is lacking enough to make writing mine worthwhile?

Cheesy cartoons like this owe a lot to Sir Henry Irving and melodrama in plotline! Infact most adventure series do. How about that for an article? I'll get to it after my analysis of Martin McDonagh's 'The Pillowman' and the accoumpaning article article 'Censorship What's the F***ing Point?'

Well Kyle, you don't seem to have any Edited Entries and if you do they're on another name.

Why the name change, or were you thrown out once before?

Cat, I would suggest just ignoring Kyle's post -- his comments were rude and unwarranted. If he has truly constructive comments to make, they'd be interesting to hear, but there's no reason to pay attention to what are just rants and boasts.

Oh, and for what it's worth, Cat, here is the accepted entry Kyle has -- A2309717 -- on Wizard Lore. It's only recently been accepted, and is still with a sub-editor, which is why the entry doesn't show up on his personal space as a Edited Guide entry.

Still, though, having one entry accepted into the EG doesn't give a person the right to dole out that kind of rudeness. After all, I'm responsible for these (A570296), and I'm a Scout and Subeditor, and I think your entry is good. I just refuse to pick it until the line breaks are removed.

Since I'm obviously blind to the way they work, could you take a goosey at the entry and tell me which breaks need to be lost or, if it's easier, which ones to keep please?

Sure, no problem.

Absolutely every time is used in the entry, it should be removed. It shouldn't be in there at all.

Instead, you should use at the beginning of each paragraph, and and the end of each paragraph. This will automatically put breaks between the paragraphs for you.

For example:

This is a paragraph. All of the sentences in it are about the same topic. They all fit together somehow. Paragraphs often begin with an introduction sentence and end with a concluding sentence, and have more specific details in the middle. Aren't paragraphs cool?
And this is our second paragraph. We ended the last one with a , and started this one with a . Doing this will make sure that all the formatting works out the way it is supposed to in GuideML.

Does that help?

Are you saying that ALL have to be taken out? Then why the smeg are they there??

They're there only because you put them there -- I really can't think of any other reason.

But yup, they all need to come out.

*moans a bit more...*

Yup.

One thing you can do that might help a little bit, is to use the "Find" command in your browser (on a PC, it's often CTRL-F, and under the edit menu). When you have the entry open for editing, use the "find" command to search for every instance of - that can make the removing bit a little easier.

Oh okay.

Just to explain further, we DO use tags occasionally. If we have a big quote in tags, we might use a tag to put the source of the quote on the next line. So:

This was the bit where I put my quote.
Jimster, just now.

Or we might use it to create lines of poetry:

The boy stood on the burning deck,
A string of sausages on his neck,
A squashed tomato in his eye,
And there he stood, ready to die...

Whereas paragraphs are different.

Whetehr or not you wish to have your entry in this format is up to you though. This is why we keep your original and make a copy, which we edit. Some people prefer their own formatting, but we have a house style that is only enforced on the Edited Copy that goes into the Edited Guide.



On an entirely separate note, to Kyle Katarn. Peer Review works by trying to be as constructive and (largely) polite as possible. We want to encourage people to write to the best of their own abilities. To some people, writing about wizards might seem a little trivial, but hopefully no-one was that rude when guiding you through the PR process. Please try to maintain a level of courtesy here... or I'll box your ears

Some entries are lucky in that they sail through PR, while others will take their time, and there's no guarantee that when your entry was picked after just three weeks that it's any better than one that's in here for a year. It's the final result that determines that.

I've been a professional writer now for nearly a decade, with a shelfload of books and magazines to my credit (despite this, I'm a lousy typist). When I've written entries, some of them have gone through fairly quickly, but some have been in here for a good few months. Quality of writing had less to do with it than the quality of the topic, as some topics get people gabbing and adding suggestions, and some don't.

Looking forward to your next entry!

What kind of books?


So... I don't have to take the s out?

Jimster has just outlined the circumstances in which the tag is acceptable. The use you are putting it to doesn't fit in these guidelines, so in short, the advice is, please take them out!

"Whetehr or not you wish to have your entry in this format is up to you though. This is why we keep your original and make a copy, which we edit."


But... but...