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

Hi, just a quick question (or three):

Firstly - Can we link to recommended Guide Entries? They may not be edited, but surely they will be very soon?

Secondly - How do I know if a link is safe to use or not? I understand that linking somewhere like the Microsoft website may be considered safe as Microsoft aren't likely to disappear overnight, but where is the line drawn?

Thirdly - Supposing I have linked to a page which has then been moved. Can I tell the Sub-Editor of the entry about it and ask them nicely to change it?, and if so, how do I do this, given that URLs are banned in conversation forums?

For Question 1 I'm sure thats fine but make sure you link to the recommended entry, not the original. The second will probably need the italics. The third, I think the answer is yes but you may need to either email the sub-ed or you could link to annother guide entry which contains the link that need changing. There is an entry set up for that here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/U626979

Hope this helps,

Tango
Guru

Thanks Tango - pretty much on the nail, there.

1. You can indeed link to Recommended Entries, becuase they will soon become Edited Guide Entries. As Tango said, make sure you use the A-number of the Recommended entry (i.e. the new copy), and not the original one.

2. 'Safe' websites are those which don't break the House Rules, and which exist. Of course, some sites may or may not pull some of their pages over the forthcoming months or years, but as our pages are fairly regularly checked for the quality of the links, any broken ones will get the entry in question hidden, and the author will be sent an email explaining what's happened. You can then mail back and we'll try to fix the link up for you (or remove it if the whole site's gone).

3. If the Sub still has the entry (i.e. they haven't returned it to us), you would have to make a new entry page, put the link on that, then post a link to that page in the relevant Conversation thread. It's tortuously longwinded, I know, but it's the only way at the moment...

Hope those answers made sense.