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

We're pleased to announce a new feature that is available to Edited Guide contributors. We now have the ability to add customisable credits to Edited Entries. At first, this has been used to credit the artists who illustrate entries, but we're now able to offer this feature to people who wish to give credit to Researchers who have provided additional research in Peer Review.

We don't view this as a replacement for collaboration, and we hope that people will continue to give credit where it's due. But we're also aware that some people have chosen not to credit assistance to ensure they can maintain their solo Researcher credit (which, if they've done 90% of the work is only fair). Therefore, this credit can be added to entries to acknowledge additional research for an entry.

The catch is that even if the credit is added during the Peer Review process, it will only become visible once the entry is approved and becomes an official Edited Guide entry.


To add a customisable credit, you need to add the following formula to the GuideML inbetween the final and tags.


Name to be Credited


You will need to use the name that the Researcher is generally known by, as this does not link dynamically into the Nickname function, though it does still link back to the Researcher's Personal Space like other credits.

For example:




The h2g2 Editors

What about an entry that is already in the editing process?

So how does it work for people who change their name every 5 minutes (hello oojakapivgoshowhateveryou'recallednow!)?

Thanks, Eds! I have frequently refused to be added as an author to entries that I helped with, because I don't want to be listed first in the list of authors. This will help.

Great news and many thanks!

sprout

Cyzaki. I suppose you could just put their U number.

Just put 'Gosho'

Nice one.

There's one entry in PR where I helped and then seemed to get listed as the Researcher instead of BlackberryCat.

This will put it right.

JT

A cracking good feature. I like.

B

'Bout time too, I wanted to credit several people in my last EE but couldn't

Excellent idea!

Is this going to be applied retrospectively? Will there be a forum where people can post to say:

On A123456, the credits should read Written by X, Additional material by Y, Personal Observations from Z...

Or is it only for new Entries as of today?

"Personal Observations from Z"

Is that Z the actual Researcher, or Z the hypothetical?

B

Darn those people with single-letter names!

Can you credit more than one Researcher like this?

"The catch is that even if the credit is added during the Peer Review process, it will only become visible once the entry is approved and becomes an official Edited Guide entry."

Damn! Does this mean that I can't use the CREDITS tag to be rude to people?


GreyDesk


B

You can see an example of the Credits tag in use in today's front page entry: A4240991 Arabic Dance. The GuideML is at <./>test4240991</.>.

Right, here's the current view from us guys about back-dating entries. We're happy to receive messages from people who are (at present) credited with sole authorship of entries explaining that there were other people who contributed towards the entry. We need the email to include the full code (as listed above) so we can just copy and paste it into the entry with a minimum of fuss and effort.

However, we're not going to get into the nightmare scenario of arguing about entries that are, at the moment, credited to multiple authors, but which may (or may not) have actually only been written by one person. You'll understand that in many cases these articles might have been written years and years ago - even before any of the current Italics arrived on the site. Consequently, rather than offending any individuals, we simply can't enter into discussions on those lines.

Any entries that are currently in the editorial process, simply drop us a quick post to Editorial Feedback and we'll make the necessary amendments.

The Eds

And yes, you can credit more than one researcher. Either list multiple U numbers inside the one set of credit tags, or open a new set of credit tags to list two different types of credit (ie - Illustration by X, Extra Research by Y).

The Eds

That sounds very fair.