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

Project Name: Inorganic Chemistry A1002637

Field Researcher: Iridium U220654

Start Date: 20th March 2003
End Date: 31st December 2003 (May well be before this but there's quite a few elements guys...)

Assisting Sub-Editor: Pending (gonna ask around and then get back to you)

General chemistry of the elements of the periodic table, group by group along with some background chemistry and general periodicity stuff

Overview of the Periodic Table

Chemistry of the Main Group Elements
Hydrogen
Group 1 - Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Fr
Group 2 - Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra
Group 13 - B, Al, Ga, In, Tl
Group 14 - C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb
Group 15 - N, P, As, Sb, Bi
Group 16 - O, S, Se, Te, Po
Group 17 - F, Cl, Br, I, At
Group 18 - He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn

Chemistry of the Transition Metal Elements
Group 3 - Sc, Y, La, Ac
Group 4 - Ti, Zr, Hf
Group 5 - V, Nb, Ta
Group 6 - Cr, Mo, W
Group 7 - Mn, Tc, Re
Group 8 - Fe, Ru, Os
Group 9 - Co, Rh, Ir
Group 10 - Ni, Pd, Pt
Group 11 - Cu, Ag, Au
Group 12 - Zn, Cd, Hg

Chemistry of the Lanthanides and Actinide Elements
The Lanthanides - Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu
The Actinides - Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, Md, No, Lr

I'm volunteering to sub some/all of the entries if you haven't yet found a sub.

RhoMuNuQ

Well it looks like you're planning on writing quite a number of entries for this project, so can I volunteer to help sub it (and perhaps do some writing) with Rho.

spelugx -- <./>subeditor</.>, not on strike over anything

Cheers guys, much appreciated Yeah, there should be a few article to get through there but hopefully shouldn't take a horrific amount of time but quite possibly over the six weeks. Be worth the effort tho So, do you want to fight amongst yourselves for individual entires or one take main group, the other TM and divide the misc later?

I don't mind at all what I sub - we could just split the entries at random.

Normally the subs aren't given the entries until they're all finished, but, since there are so many, we could ask Mina to make an exception.


RhoMuNuQ

Can you let me know how many pages are going to be involved? We're making some changes to the Uni, and we need to know this. Also the deadline might need looking at.

Oooooh, 8 main group element pages + 1 backgroud, 10 transition metal pages + 1 background, 2 pages for lanthanides and actinides and a gentle warming welcome page so about 23 pages, oooh, and the title page of course. I can probably bring the deadline forward some but six weeks does seem a bit short...

It's very likely that the Uni will reopen before you have finished, and there is going to be a limit on the number of entries a project can have, because of the strain on the staff. That limit is probably going to be five, so you might have to rethink the structure of your project.

Can you split it into 5 sections?

Erm, not really, each group will still require it's own page to do it properly. I can split it into different projects and have one or more of them on standby for later, say do main group (Gp1&2, 13-18), TM (groups 2-10) and another mini-one for lanthanides and actinides, but the first two will still exceed the five limit, it's not feasble really. A max number of entries of five seems a touch on the small side for just about any area you might want to do a project in?

5 entries seems to me to be the right size for those entries which outgrow just the single page and need splitting.

I can see two types of project: those which are in the style of single articles but are so big they have multiple pages, for example a biography of a person; and those which try to cover a _large_ area comprehensively like this one.

Perhaps we need some sort of incremental system for ones like this. Perhaps the articles can be 'published' is batches of five but added to a single project category, so that the project grows with time?

Or a category could be created called 'The Elements' and each entry PR'ed indiviually but added to that category with a index page being updated each time?

spelugx -- throwing about some ideas

There are some good ideas there S'pe;lug:x.

The reason why we decided to stick to five is because the minimum for a project is 3, and so 6 could be two projects.

Because we only have one member of the Edited Guide team dedicated to checking these, large projects take up too much of our time. We need to keep the amount small. Otherwise large projects can take months to check, and the people who have written small ones get stuck at the end of a large queue.

Hi Mina Okay, had a think, how's about introducing various parts of it as different projects? I could start off with the s-block (groups 1&2), add to that group 12, Zn, Cd, Hg as some of the chemistry is comparable and also the f-block which shows some similarities with gps1&2 could be combined into 5 entries excluding the title page of course. Later on TMs could be split into two as could the main group after that. Would also allow the whole thing to be paced better. Easy matter to amend the present title page and go from there, what do you think?

I'm replying in this thread only, but the comments also apply to Project: America.

I don't think that a lot of separate projects all with a similar theme would be a good idea. The key reason for not having all the entries in one project is that new projects to be sent to the back of a long queue. If the author was prepared to wait for a few months between writing the long project and having it Edited, couldn't (on average) one entry of the project be checked by an Editor every day, in addition to the usual five entries per day and the usual amount of work on other, smaller projects? This would stop the slowing down of other new projects without creating a vast workload increase for the Editors. Finally, the entries could all appear on the Front Page together, maybe only a month and a half to two months after they had all been subbed.

RhoMuNuQ

Hmmm, I could just start writing some stuff, leave the overall project idea on hold for the time being, wait for the uni to reopen and then see what can be done with the entries I have already got. Could allow for a slower unofficial semi-subbing to spot major howlers entry by entry as time goes on then sort out and edit properly later and figure out what to do. Mina, your thoughts?

If you want to start writing entries, then that's fine.

But a big project is really out of the question. Even if we manage to sub it while still doing other work, no-one is going to click through 25 entries in a day while they are on the Front Page. It's much better to do it in smaller bursts so that people can have a chance to read them at leisure. You also get more Front Page.

I think part of the problem with large projects similarily to large entries is that by trying to cover a large area they may end up being deficient in some aspect.

The way I think this particular project should work is by releasing small groups of entries at a time, like all the group 1 elements on one day, and having each group sent through as a separate project. Although each group would technically be a separate project, the writer can still structure them so that they fit together into a bigger picture.

Would it be possible for the editors in addition to the normal project index page, to have one which links across several related projects?

spelugx -- wishing that certain things had never happened

That's certainly a possibility.

We don't want to restrict the numbers of entries that Researchers write, but we do need to restrict the number of entries that we get in at one time.

Okay, I'll write at a leisurely pace and post a new revised title page within a few weeks and sort out small projects as I go along as the months go by. Present title page once revised can then link the projects together at the end. How's that? You guys still want to sub?

I certainly do, and I'm pretty sure Rho does to. So I'll be ready whenever entries start to appear. Good luck!

spelugx

Iridium: Spelugx is right - I do!

Mina: I like Spelugx's suggestion of having one index page linking related, smaller projects.

RhoMuNuQ