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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A550045

Very useful. Concise. Informative. A few funny bits, and a few more.

I must have missed something, there doesn't seem to be anything here about self-defense, just a lot of moderately interesting narative that could best be summarized as bend over and kiss your bum good bye.

There are techniques that can be learned to minimize the damage you would suffer in your hypothetical situation, but even ignoring that, you forgot to sneer at the choice of 'Attempt to Negotiate.'

Part of self-defense training does in fact depend on having enough control of your own panic to asses the situation. Another part of the training is not to put yourself in that sort of situation in the first place.

So, having shown how stupid a person is to put himself in that situation which is where your article *IS* right now. You need to figure out how to back up the decision tree step by step and show how that decision might have been made differently for the sake of self defense.

The point being, that self defense starts by always being prepared to make the safest most defensible decision.

I'd say you have the start of an article but only a start. Others may disagree with me,

Barton

"moderately interesting narative"?
"I'd say you have the start of an article but only a start"?

Hey! Not bad for a beginner! =]

I'll work on it (though, in all honesty, it was only meant to humour... I mean, I could have gone into all sorts of weaponry and martial arts; and as you pointed out: not putting 'yourself in that sort of situation in the first place'... but I'll see how I can improve upon my moderately interesting article.

Remember that fiction does not make it to the edited guide. You must be talking about something that has a factual basis, even if that basis is something fictional. For intance if you wanted to write an article about the various virtues of fictional oriental fighting styles as exemplified by your favorite actors That would be acceptable so long as you can write it in the third person without inventing your facts.

Post here when you have made some changes and I'll be happy to throw out some suggestions.

Barton

hi fahfooh
i kinda think barton is right, i was a little disappointed after being lured into the article by the title 'self defence'. after having learned about 10 martial arts i can offer that you add the option and realistic version of really going out and working hard for a few years to learn an effective martial art that can get you out of a situation like that- if you're interested- the most effective multi-opponent systems i learned are wing chun and krav maga.
what im saying is that although your article is meant to be humourous, i think the situation you described has a real solution (the best being barton's idea- non-violent negotiation).
mav

Hey, no worries on the sometimes painful criticism you'll get in peer review. Just make sure the article is good, informative and enjoyable to read . I gotta admit I think barton was a tad harsh... but that's just my opinion. I'm gonna read this when I get the chance... I'll drop my opinion by soon .

- Matt

Okay, I've given it a read over and I gotta tell ya it's pretty entertaining... although it is a bit under informative. I guess a little more fact would seriously increase your chances of getting into the guide... but I dunno... an entry about socks just hit the editing process . Keep up the good work!

- Matt

I probably was more than a tad harsh and I apologize for it. (consider the day I wrote it and that I should have known better than to be walking let alone writing a critique -- no excuse, but there it is.)

But, I don't think I was inaccurate. You of course may disagree.

Barton

Thank you, all of you

Being my first 'foray' into this website, I truly appreciate your help...

Barton almost made me laugh... (wink)

...forgot to mention: My entry was meant to be funny, and only a little bit factual... the whole 'Self Defense' thing was meant as a laugh; and that's where I want to apologise: I was trying to have fun: trying to make fun of a subject that hadn't been covered yet.

Sorry.

No need to be sorry!

How about 'So Long And Thanks For Laughing' as a place for it?

Given that

* there seems to be a consensus that the entry isn't ready for the Edited Guide as is,
* the author, while acknowledging the comments in this thread, has not significantly edited the entry, and
* the author has not been around for a few months

how would y'all feel about moving this thread to the Writing Workshop?


Mikey

agreed.

Bossel (Scout)

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'The h2g2 Writing Workshop'.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'The Writing Workshop' to 'The Flea Market'.