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

The title says it all, really.

It could be one that you find particularly interesting, or funny, or useful, or just that appeals to you personally for whatever reason. Or one that you could point to and say "This is why we're not W*k*"

You could even nominate your one of your own, if there's one that you are especially proud of.

Building the Guide is the reason that this site exists, so what are the best bits of the Guide?



Geggs

My favourite is Belming and Chinning A19367814

Winter Birds A30081700 without a doubt, although imho "Winter Harbour" A17402564, also by langsandy is the very very best entry on h2g2, though 'approved' in the underguide only. A special mention also for 'Hanger Lane' A303346 the first entry I ever read on h2g2.

Winter Birds is certainly awesome. I'd say, though, that Jodan's Ashtabula Horror (A29443223) shades the title.

In fact the set of EG Entries collectively chosen for the update of the Writing Guidelines page (A53209) make a decent testament to the spirit of the Edited Guide.

If we're going to count UnderGuide Entries as "approved", then for me it becomes a question of where to stop. If the requirement is just one nomination to stand for the quality of many, then nadia's Rusalka (A2163791) is very fine.

I'll be selfish.


I'm pretty proud of my one that's on the front page right now: A76774549

I also really like a few of my others, like: A2654697 and A2225639 and my very first one A950203

Not wanting, or being able, to blow my own trumpet.... so
A12219374
I thought was pretty good... I'll think of more when I can (think) again

My favourite guide entry is:

A513604 - "Being Pretentious"

Written almost ten years ago by a researcher who Elvised in 2002 and Edited by another researcher who Elvised in 2003. I can't remember when I first saw it, but it influenced some of my edited guide writing....

This - for me - sums up what h2g2 does - or at least can do - that wikipedia does not and cannot. More of this sort of thing in the future, I say....

I don't have a favourite, but the <./>RandomEditedEntry</.> just threw up A30334844 - Kilts which I was only going to have a quick read though and ended up reading from top to bottom.

>>This - for me - sums up what h2g2 does - or at least can do -
that wikipedia does not and cannot.

Quite so. Wiki could possibly tell you what preteniousness is, but only the Guide can tell you how to affect it.

It's knowledge, as opposed to wiki's information.


Geggs

Here are some of my favourites:

A62476644 - Davy Crockett

A51607816 - Anthony Comstock and the Death of Ida Craddock

A54096816 - Grace Gifford's Wedding

A50670029 - Bernd das Brot, a German icon

A5998774 - Anne Bonny and Mary Read-Piracy and Sexual Deviance on the
Spanish Main

Sorry that second one should be:


A51607181 for Anthony Comstock and the Suicide of Ida Craddock.

Agree with a lot of what entries have been posted so far, especially entries such as Winter Birds and Being Pretentious.

Whenever this topic comes up, one of my initial thought is always A583300 The Joy of Socks. It was one of the early entries I read, and the playfulness of it helped me grow to love h2g2. Another entry in this category is the absurd A972290 Bog Roll - Over, Under or Not at All? Another sort of thing that isn't to be found anywhere else.
A1037693 The Tale of the Batavia is a gripping, well-told story. It's almost cinematic (in a good way).
A29584461 Trout's The Melbourne Cup is an awesome work.
I was always a big fan of Farlander's entries. A1920520 The Memphis Belle is a good example. His entries were usually absolutely brilliantly researched, exhaustive, long and wonderful. A1304957 Mozart's Death is another fine example.
Several years back, there was a sort of mini-craze for collaborative entries featuring many voices and narratives (this includes the weekly collaborative entries that the Eds used to put together). I'm usually more inclined towards entries with a single voice, but A930232 stories from World War II is too good to ignore. I love the fact that h2g2 is happy to show fact through anecdotes. An entry like that is an implicit way of saying that there's a lot more to be learned from World War II than what's on the wikipedia page.

I'll blow my own trumpet too, mainly because seeing my work published online still gives me a kick and that's the real draw of H2G2.

Seeing this entry referred to so often in discussions about why Britain managed to carve out an empire makes me chuffed - A22548530

This one was possibly the most thoroughly researched Entry I did, but I genuinely feel I haven't seen such a succinct bio of the man anywhere else - A22691559

For tongue-in-cheek informativeness, A30109231 was quite fun.

And I suppose I have to mention A19441299

There are a few uni projects (they are huge, but I read all entries, so I guess that should be telling you something)

The Romans in Britain to be found at C54828

The Main Street of America – Route 66 C55793

The Byzantine Empire C55768

Yellow A42694671 is a good collaborative one
my personal favourite of my entries is this one A42694806

mini

I was always blown away by lilithcookie's stuff. This is the edited version of her entry about Dancing on Tables - A872787

If I had to pick one of mine for purposes of tweeting now, it would be A36163901 - the Mundaneum has a lot in common with the Guide, and was shut down due to lack of a proper home...

One of my favourites was Mu Beta's We Didn't Start the Fire A2700488, a true community project. I only helped on the smallest part of it, but was really proud to have been involved. Mu Beta conceived the idea, promoted it, asked for help, begged for help, recruited help, delegated help, co-ordinated it all, and if he didn't get a Uni badge for it he should have (the Uni wasn't running at the time). The whole project included a stellar cast of authors, some true collaboration, showcased some of our best talent at the time, and was fun and educational to write AND read.

I was also a fan of The Short Guide to Short words which is sadly no longer available. You can see what's left of it here A688476

I wonder if Mr. Joel ever considers doing an update of 'We didn't start the fire'?

'Russians in Afghanistan'

How history marches on in its sameness.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g