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

Entry: Driving Etiquette - The United Kingdom - A3914372
Author: Oojakapiv. Happily unencumbered by the thought process - U147203

Once upon a time there was an entry on International Driving Etiquette A139501, but it got so long that it was split up into 17 seperate entries:
A412958 - USA
A412930 - UK
A412921 - Taiwan
A412912 - Switzerland
A412895 - Spain
A412886 - Portugal
A412877 - Norway
A412868 - New Zealand
A412859 - Italy
A412840 - Israel
A412831 - Ireland
A412813 - India
A412804 - Germany
A412796 - France
A412787 - Egypt
A412769 - Canada
A412750 - Australia

If you got to some of those entries, like for instance Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, they're only one paragraph long and look pretty awful, so I've amalgamated them into (I think) seven entries based on regions of the world and continents. I've also added a few links to country-based entries and a small number of others.

The only one I'm a bit unsure of is India. Should there be a separate entry for the Indian sub-continent or should it be included in Asia?

There's one other problem - most of them don't have an introductory paragraph so they start with a header - normally against EG guidelines, but I don't think it should be too much of a problem in this case, unless anyone wants to help me write some introductions

hmm, a few issues with this.

There's no intro. It's about driving in the UK, but plunges straight into London, which I feel needs a header of its own (if for no other reason than not to not piss off the rest of the country!).

Actually, having read most of the entry, it's just annoying me because there's so much 'wrong' but 'funny' that I really don't think I should comment anymore than that. In fact I'd suggest that this needs to be withdrawn from the EG because it's dangerous and not actually very helpful at all. So clearly I'm taking it all a bit too seriously and should go away.

And I just read your PR message, so realised that you know there is no intro. Really showing myself up today.

Anyway, would be happy to write an intro about driving in the UK, but only if I can take out all the dodgy stuff in this entry. I'm not having my name on an entry that states that you should overtake dangerously...

So you're talking about a complete rewrite rather than a simple update Mina? This entry is one of many, the history of which is outlined in the first post of this thread. I haven't changed the content of any of them, simply amalgamated them into geographical regions. This one has only had the title changed.

Jimster has said here F149889?thread=627356&latest=1#p6945099 that he's not inclined to amalgamate them, but since this one is the only one that *didn't* get amalgamated with any others, it would be the easiest to rewrite.

I think that by the time everything dodgy has been removed, then there isn't going to be much left of this entry. I'm hesitant to suggest that one person rewrites an Etiquette entry like this, because I think that's in effect just one person's opinion of the nice way to drive, and would probably just turn into another 'how to drive' entry like A1011853 or A3913445, and I don't want to do another.

I'm of the opinion that perhaps as other Researchers have said that other sections are rubbish as well (French and Irish) then we should just give up on these and demote them. Unfortunately there's been wuite a bit of demoting going on lately, so I'm not sure the Eds will put up with losing another 20 entries...

In a way, I wish I'd never said anything.

I agree with you Mina - if not amalgamated they should be totally rewritten, but as a collaborative entry they really can't be, and ought to be demoted, but that probably won't happen

Wait, let me rephrase that:

Most of them ought to be rewritten whether or not they are amalgamated.

I have to admit, I always thought that the "Driving Etiquette" entries were dreadful. But I've managed to ignore them for years! I even wrote a "Driving in France" entry and got it accepted independently of the "Driving Etiquette in France" entry.

Maybe we should campaign for them to be withdrawn as an EG entry?

I think I'd go along with that... although it would mean demoting my first ever contribution to the EG

It would be in a good cause though. There is information in this entry that is not only dangerous but possibly against the law. It's certainly against the Highway Code.

What IS happening with all these? Is it worthwhile doing the continental divide as planned and jamming them altogether into a Uni Project (7 entries) - or even Topic of the Week so they can all be updated by Researchers who live and drive in those places (granted most of the feedback will be Europe and North america, but I'm sure there'll be some others...)

Or am I just being silly?

They were originally a topic of the week - that's why they are so bad. Whoever put them together could only do it from what had been posted to the forum. If we make it another topic of the week, we could end up with the same problem.

I'd say remove them from the EG and stick them into the FM.

I think, just because fo the legacy thing, we'd be reluctant to demote them. I'd prefer to change them into 'Mostly Harmless' entries, and that way if someone wishes to rewrite one of them (rather than all of them at once), then we can work through it that way.

Of course, entries that are so inaccurate as to be dangerous should be flagged to us via Editorial Feedback, along with suggestions as to how the entry might be improved.

That's a good compromise Jims. They do strongly reflect the sort of writing that we indulged in five or six years ago but which isn't really the style these days.

It's been nearly a year, and I think that we should probably do something with this entry. Rather than try to make it into something that's not at all dangerous, perhaps we should redo it as a kind of 'how not to drive but everyone does anyway' type entry? That way we could keep the funny bits and not in effect replicate the advanced driving entry.

What do you think?

Ok, this has been here for two years, with no comments from the updater for nearly a year. Would you mind removing it from the forum please? It could come back again at a later date.

Why not move it to Challenge and see if any of the other Researchers can do anything with it?

Tis removed.

Gosh one of, if not the first, early colaborative entries being revisited. Look at all those low U numbers. The vast majority lower than my own. I think this entry was definitely of its time pre-Rupert and more in the Douglas style of humour than anything else.

I'm sure it could be tightened up without losing the essence of what it first was. After all some of us have had equally non-sensical entries accepted into the EG.