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

Hi Zach , just a quuuick hi as I browse through your 'intriguing' User page. Couldn't agree more with your posting in the NEW USERS forum about the WAITING TO BE REJECTED subject.

By the way ... How can you include your pic in here? did you write some html command ? and i guess it links to your web space to load it ... could you please tell me that html command?

Talk soon

Oh sure. Not sure if the tagging will be visible in here. I'm assuming it will. Otherwise I'll just resend another way.

I used the basic A HREF and IMG SRC commands in html.



If you're using Netscape or MSIE, you should be able to right click on any frame and choose "view source" which will allow you to examine any webpage on the 'Net, unless the creator of said webpage has found a way to circumvent that. You can "look under the hood" of practically any part of the Web that way. With time you'll get the hang of html. I've been doing it for about four years now.

As for the waiting, it's rather perplexing. I understand they are swamped with entries, and they want fellow field researchers to kinda edit one another's works, but I don't see a lot of that happening here. Some reasons could include the fact that the average participant here is still a bit unclear what the Powers That Be are really looking for. They don't want us to write like Douglas Adams. Do they want the submissions serious or funny? What wordlength would be ideal? What's the best way to choose which words or phrases are best to define? What has already been done by other field researchers?

This project holds a lot of promise, but admittedly, http://www.megadodo.com is much better organized in how it communicates to fellow participants, and Project Galactic Guide is largely manual. Very little cgi going on. The editor participants are doing everything in their free time. Despite this really hoopy interface here at H2G2, in some ways, PGG still has the upper hand.

Damn shame the two different organizations can't just join forces and accentuate their accumulative strengths. I don't even know when I'll know whether or not a submission of mine has been rejected here at H2G2. With PGG, you know for certain when they're looking over your work. You get emails and they communicate with you directly.

Time will tell. I want to give H2G2 a chance because it has potential. However, I can't help but be reminded of a time when I was torn between two girlfriends. One girlfriend had some really nice qualities but the other lass excelled in other areas. And I remember thinking gee, wouldn't it be nice if I could take woman "A"s brain and put it in woman "B"s body, then mesh their hearts together?

Looking at the plusses and minuses of Douglas Adams' Official Guide and the work of Paul and Alex at Project Galactic Guide, it's very much like that. I wish I could just magically combine the two. I think the end result would be infinitely better than each one standing alone.

Just wanted to say that I think it's great that you are having a look at other peoples pages. After all, we only write this stuff in the hope that others will read it. I am interested in this other page you are talking about. I also want to have a look at your pages etc. However, the slow loading graphics are running up my phone bill, so I'll get back to you. Bye!

My confusion in this project is that there are an exceedingly high number of articles out there, and I don't know how to readily find them, and the number is increasing exponentially. I'm sure a lot of good stuff is getting lost in here.

We need a voting system, so someone who has already swung by and read something can leave their mark and vote on the entry. Then some sort of ready-made list of the ones that get the most positive votes would rise to the top.

I'm not talking about entries that have already been accepted by the Powers That Be. I mean the stuff getting lost in the shuffle. The user pages awaiting rejection.

In theory, if they did all that, you wouldn't feel like you're wasting your time and money in here, Holly. How do we get the Powers That Be aworkin' on that idear?

Hi Zach - thanks for the emails, I'll check on the chat room regularly and hope to see you there. As for auto selection of artcles, Jim Lynn's list includes a hit counter for user pages, which will do some self selection, but may miss out some (serious, unfunny) stuff which is worth including and include some (wacky, ephemeral (sic)) stuff which isn't. There will have to be some editor input to the process I think.

You're welcome Jan, and about Jim Lynn's list, well let's just say I know what it's like to have this long list of things you want to do on the Web, and there's so much it's quite a big deal and despite your good intentions you never actually get any of it accomplished. I'm sure Lynn and the other Powers That Be will work diligently and when we see the results it's gonna rock, but forgive me for not holding my breath while we all wait for it to happen.