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

We've two Edited Entries on Danny Elfman:

Entry A245639 Danny Elfman - Musician
Entry A583409 Danny Elfman - Film Composer

You might think from the names that they were about different aspects of his work, but they're not. They're both about the same subject.

The earlier one is a poorer entry, so anything worth keeping from it should probably be added to the second one.

This is a task that someone like Bluebottle might enjoy.

There are a few housekeeping tasks that would have to be done:

1. The first entry demoted from Edited status.
2. The author of the first entry added to the author list of the second entry.
3. The subeditor of the first entry given an "Additional Sub-editing" credit on the second entry.
4. Conversations from the first entry to be moved to the second entry.
5. The line in the second entry that refers to the first entry to be removed.

(There are no other Edited Entries that link to the first entry).

There's also an apparent mistake in the "Film Composer" entry - Danny Elfman appears to have been born and raised in Los Angeles, not Texas. He made up the story about Texas, apparently, although this should be checked out.

I'll add it to our Big List of Things to Do over on Trello, in case we overlook this. I agree, it is a task that needs to be done. Thanks for pointing it out.


Lanzababy

Someone like Bluebottle might agree with you about this one...

<BB<

Does this mean that you're going to do it? Or that someone like you is going to do it?

I didn't realise that there were other people like me out there.

Of the two versions, the first has the better introduction while the second has the most information, so there's room to create the best of both.

So though combining the two is the sort of thing I like to do, I'm not exactly sure how the best way to go about it is. (I don't even know whether we're still doing things like 'Mostly Harmless'). Especially if we're not sure about the accuracy of either version (ie, whether or not he comes from Texas originally). I know his music, but don't know about him personally and we don't have anything about him in the library either.

<BB<

Combine the information from both and put it in the second one. Then use Editor powers to do all the other steps I listed earlier.

But if there is a contradiction between the two, I don't know where we'd find out which is correct.

Before I start making changes to an Edited entry, I've created a temporary version here: A87845449
I didn't want to alter the edited version directly as it isn't a subject I know anything about, so would rather people had a look over before the final changes are made and the temporary version deleted. (I've also tidied it up slightly so that song titles are in inverted commas and not italicised, film titles are italicised etc).

I've not demoted entries from Edited status before either.

<BB<

It's very easy. You just edit them and change the status from 1 to 3. Moving conversations is not so easy - it wasn't working when I was an Editor so I don't know how it is done.

Hi <BB<

I read through your copy of the merged Entries, and you've done a good job of pulling them together.

I checked a bit about him and he is on record as saying he started making up answers to the same old questions, so the Texas thing isn't true, but the way you tweaked the sentence looks good all round

Thanks for your dedication <BB<

If you ever need a conversation thread moving, please ask Mags, she can do it easily.

Thanks for your comments. I won't be able to do any more before next week (and next week might be a bit hectic, so I'm not promising anything within a fortnight anyway), so if you want to make any changes in the meantime feel free to, otherwise I'll amend this when I can. (If it has waited over a decade, a couple of weeks shouldn't make much difference...?)

<BB<

I've merged the two entries together and updated A583409 with the best of both, crediting all involved. I've also changed the other entry's status to '3' and moved all conversations to the Edited entry. The only thing I've not done is deleted the old entry from the Categorisation system, as I don't seem to be able to.

<BB<

I don't think that's possible BB, at least, I've never been able to undo a categorisation!

Thanks very much for doing this merger

GB

Thank you <BB< - that's excellent work!

I deleted the Entry from the categorisation just now by selecting Categorise, finding it in the list, and then selecting Delete Entry.

Oh! Well you learn something new every day!

GB

I tried that, but it didn't like me. Mind you I wasn't in the Editors account at the time...

<BB<

what account were you in then? I can't categorise as Galaxy Babe.

One of the Ripley skins is easier to use for categorising than the others, and I know you can remove entries from a category. Without going to check, I think it was via Alabaster.

Not a problem, I'll have a poke around next time I have my h2g2 Eds cloak on