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

To whom it may concern;
I would love to be an H2G2 Scout. Not only do I love reading and writing, it would be great to help see people's work become the best it can be and then see that work given the recognition it deserves. I am online at least a few hours a day, so meeting deadlines would not be a problem. Thank you in advance for your consideration!

Just in case my info doesn't show up in the subject...
Nickname: Lord High Mucky-Muck (
Researcher #: 238141

Hi - I'm just one Scout and I don't speak for all of us, but here goes with my standard-ish advice for would-be Scouts, which hopefullly will be of some use! As far as I know, they're not recruiting new Scouts at the moment, but , all is not lost and I think they may be in the near future...

The best thing you can do in the meantime is to get up to speed on what the Scouts do, the most important of which is contributing to PeerReview - by helping to comment on other people's entries and get them up to the standard required for the Edited Guide. That way, when the next recruitment drive happens, people will have already seen you around Peer Review and know who you are and that you'd be a useful person to have on the team... compared to someone who just wants a nice shiny badge and the chance to pick two entries every month.

To contribute to PR to maximum effect, it's a good idea to learn the Writing-Guidelines inside out so you know what's required - and more importantly, the kind of thing that will rule an entry out, like being written in the first person. Another good idea is to read all the new entries that come up on the front page to get an idea of the length of entry and quality of writing that the Scouts are looking for when they select an Edited Guide entry - you can find the complete list of entries published over the last month on the Month page.

But probably one of the best things you can do in terms of learning how PR works is to write an article for the EG and submit it to Peer Review, and I know you've already done that... which is great because this way you'll be learning at first hand how the process works and what's required.

What I will say in addition, that I certainly don't say to everyone, is that periodically new researchers come to h2g2 that instantly understand what's required and start contributing entries of a high standard right away. This happens increasingly rarely these days, but I reckon you could be the latest... and such researchers do tend to make good Scouts

Best of luck!



Cheers,
Number Six