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

Entry: Seven Card W**kstain - A435584
Author: Lucinda (et al) - U129960

Guidelines change
Editors change
Nothing stays the same except
Change.

Spare any change?

Has this entry changed sufficiently for you to imagine Sam might have changed his mind about it? There's nothing I can really add that hasn't already been said by Sam the last time this was in Peer Review, so to quote his original comment: >> I virtually coughed and spluttered all over this dreadful entry in an apoplectic fit, so surely that must render it unsuitable - at the very least unhygienic! Lucinda, I just don't see how the Edited Guide will suffer because of this entry's absence from it - it's still in the Guide and it's still searchable. It was reasonably well written and in 'form' it fulfilled Editied Guide criteria. Its 'content' however, we deemed to be tasteless, and, well, basically useless. As far as the Edited Guide is concerned, we have to maintain certain standards where possible, and as I said earlier, this entry is still in the Guide at large. << (the original posting can be found here) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F53661?thread=77584&skip=20&show=20#p1150604

Well, it was picked by a Scout before. And it's been well over a year. And in that time there's been the inevitable slow evolution of the guidelines and type of entry that gets accepted. And the Editorial Team has changed too. So I thought it was worth seeing what my peers thought this time round. After all, it's topical.

Besides, I never agreed with what Sam said. I've just taken a long time to get round to challenging it. As Sam admitted, it fulfills all the relevant criteria. IMNSHO, it shouldn't be kept out just because one of the Italics had an attack of the heebie-jeebies.

-Martin

All I can think is that the Scout must have been desparate. This is a bloody awful entry, not just because it's disgusting, but because I find it unimaginable why anyone would want others to know how desparate they are for some form of social interaction. Playing cards with your friends (as opposed to making entertaining conversation, sharing a hobby, eating nice food, watching a film, going for a walk etc) is generally regarded as a sign of pathological boredom and an impoverished imagination. God only knows what a psychiatrist would make out of this abomination.

"On H2G2, YOU (kitchener points) decide what goes into the the Guide ... "

(I think 'Bint Ben doing it in a Tin' can be introduced here ...)

Trout

"Guidelines change
Editors change
Nothing stays the same except
Change."

Fellow Scouts: let's indicate that 'change' doesn't have to mean 'change for the worse'.

Back to the entry, I say, and good riddance.

Any seconders?

FM

*appears in a puff of smoke*

Hell, y'all know that I think that the EG is pedestrian and boring most of the time. This is neither. It made me laugh, I enjoyed the writing style, it made me absolutely determined to make my excuses and leave if the game is ever suggested. In fact, thinking about it, it should go in the EG as a warning to naive and innocent college students, and goddess knows there are enough of them here.

Oh. And it questions the boundaries of what is and is not suitable for a guide which is supposed to be 'so hip it can't see over its own pelvis'.

Pick it and put it in say I.

And while I am at it, remember that if you change your mind it is because you are older and wiser than you were before.

a bint called Ben
*grateful for the warning, and sitting back for the ride*

Good idea for the London meet-up



B

Not!

Or a game of Marie Biscuits ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F53661?thread=204657

*thinks it better to hold his silence at this point*

B

Now if the Eds had said that it broke the 'No Spitting!' rule, I would have agreed with them.

But they didn't.

So I don't.

B

Well, if this gets in, it'll have widened the goalposts for an Edited Entry to such a degree that there will be no point whatsoever to being a Scout: TPTB might as well accept any old garbage that gets thrown into PR.

Ben wrote:

>> I think that the EG is pedestrian and boring most of the time <<




Wow. Dismissive of the 100+ entries that go into the Guide every month, and drenched in smugness in one go.

Not really helping to change anyone's mind though, Ben. Quite the reverse...

Arrogance rather than smugness, Jimster. I will admit being arrogant on occasion, but I am rarely smug.

But the more I think about it the more I think that this entry does serve a purpose. I may be 25 years past the age when I joined in that kind of drinking game, but I do now know not to join in this particular one.

B

Felonious Monk - that depends on your definition of garbage. If you mean something which is offensive, then yes. But most garbage is neither funny nor useful. Imho this is arguably both.

B

I believe that that'No Spitting' rule was mentioned in a previous post in the thread that Jimster linked to Ben "...it also contravenes one of our most sacred house rules which clearly states, 'No spitting!'"

I totally agree with Jimster and Sam, this is a pretty disgusting thing for the BBC to be seen to be giving a stamp of approval to. We've had Edited Entries with asterisked out words in before, because those words were essential to the entry. However, this entry mimics the game in that it appears to be about saying w**k a lot, for no good reason.

That took me longer to write than I expected Ben, so I missed your Posts.

Useful?

Ye-es. I see your dilemma, but let me quote you what the entry actually says:

"It was subsequently brought back to Britain, where it received absolutely no popular acclaim at all."

"This game is possibly one of the most unpleasant games ever invented, and researchers are advised to stay well away from it at all costs."

"Clearly, the larger the game, the worse the outcome for the culprit."

Hardly a rallying cry, is it?

Stupid of me to miss the point that the beeb endorse what we write. And there was me thinking that they only published it. *sigh*

To be honest, I don't care much one way or the other whether this goes in the edited guide. It is only a spitting game, for heaven's sake.

Hey ho.

Rather you than me.

B

Useful? About as much use as a coprophagy manual. Funny? About as funny as a burning orphanage. I wouldn't ask a sub-ed to clean this up, in the same way I wouldn't ask them to clear up if my dog had been sick on the carpet.

But of course, this is only my humble opinion.