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

Hmm.. brings to mind something I read recently. This isn't mine, and it's pretty lengthy, but IMHO it's well worth the read if you have time:

http://www.chariot.net.au/~cyberius/universe.htm

Oh.. Warning.. The end of this tale may cause hypothermia, so bring a warm jacket along.

This may seem like a newbie question, but:

How do you know when one of your articles has been accepted?

and

How do I know when an editor has looked at my articles? (no sniggering at the back, please)

plus

How do I improve the chances of getting my articles seen by an editor?

and finally

How about some of you reading my pages and posting to my forums? goto http://www.h2g2.com/U43003 and read my stuff under 'user pages'. Or just click the link with my name. If you want to do it the easy way, that is. Takes all the challenge out of it.

As far as I know, you find out you've been accepted because at the bottom of your page (next to 'other user pages' is a section called something like 'user guide entries' ... see batty's page for an example.

http://www.h2g2.com/U28914

They email you to tell you that the article you submitted has either been rejected or accepted. You know when they have looked at it when they tell you that the article you submitted to them is either accepted or rejected. There is no way I know of to speed it up. Many articles that have been submitted have been waiting for a long time because of the backlog (I believe the current record is 11 weeks?) so you just gotta submit it and wait a few months for a response. If anyone knows a trick to get an article looked at sooner, do tell!

I didn't know they emailed you at all. I know batty didn't know he'd failed at being rejected until I told him.

Given the amount of work they do reading the things (I have a suspicion, entirely unsupported by any evidence - so don't take it as offence, that some submission might make this a very tedious, boring job) I guess its not unreasonable to have to check once a week if anythings made it.

Anyhow - doesn't non rejected material appear in a different column on one's homepage?

The time taken to respond to submissions is obviously related to the editors' LQ (lunch quotient). Stop tittering at the back there, I said LQ not IQ. It may also have something to do with the funding of h2g2 - can The Guide actually afford a whole team of editors, or is here just one person beavering away in a little shed somewhere, talking to his cat (or what he likes to think of as a cat) , using lots of different names to create an illusion of corporate structure. Does Douglas know what's going on ?

Yes. If you'd checked out that link I gave you (scroll up) you'll see at the bottom of his pages something like this:

User Pages Guide Entries
---------- -------------
list list
of of
pages Non-rejected
here Guide Entries Here
click to list link
click to add link

(Two different collumns)

At least that's how it worked out for him. I dunno if TPTB have those on their pages, though.

HTH

Eeeks... That suxed. You'll have to use your imagination and split that up into two columns in your mind's eye.

Or else, of course, go look.