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

Alfa stage was Ginger dating Doug who she met at h2G2
I suggest you keep well out of the beta stage Vegiman.........

Thanks for the warning
vegiman

Sorry Jim Lynn - I missed your posting. Thanks for the kind words, It is the first I have from had any of the team since its conception.
BTW love the photo on your page - Who's a proud dad then.

Getting back to my request to Yoz. Any chance of a front page mention.
vegiman

Must put my reading glases on, it's your Godson on your knee - Sorreee for the boob.

BTW have you had any thoughts about finding some space for people to send their images to. Only, If this page is still around in a hundred years time - it will look silly with half the pics missing.

Or do you do this when a page is accepted.
vegiman

We'll be offering image storage, but we want to make sure we've got the resources to cope with it.

Arghh! and now we can talk about it! Had to hold up whilst Mark was away. It's fun and more creative opportunities than I thought there would be. Which is great.

Come on then, let us know more about it! What do you do, and how do you do it

Okay, I'll give you a run-down of what we saw in two days there:

The Uffizi has some absolutely great artworks, but it's actually a bit restricted in period and reach for my tastes. Its Michaelangelo is not that great; its big Leonardo is just a sketch (and the other one was out for loan or restoration just 3 weeks ago) - if you like da Vinci, go to the National Gallery in London and see the Madonna of the Rocks, which is *much* better than the Mona Lisa, and you can sit there for 15 minutes looking at it without another soul passing.

But back to Florence: the Duomo is absolutely stunning from the outside, a symphony in marble, but it's a little disappointing on the inside. You can climb up into the dome to a whispering gallery (but I've done that at St.. Paul's, and it was *very* hot in Florence, so I didn't). You can climb the bell-tower here, and the view over the city must be great.

If you want to see a wonderful inside, go a couple of blocks North-West to the Capella Novella (not sure about my endings there), the chapel of the Medici family. It's small, but the decoration is truly phenomenal, the only thing I've ever seen to top St.Peter's in Rome, and there are some Michaelangelo statues there too (his sculpture is so much better than his painting!)

A more public space worth visiting is the square outside the Palazzo Vecchio, right next door to the Uffizi. The palace itself is tremedously impressive; there's a copy of the statue of David (it's on the site of the original, which was moved inside for safe keeping), and (if it's still there) there's a really fun exhibition of modern sculptures too, all over the square.

The Boboli Gardens at the Palazzo Pitti are well worth a visit - they're much hillier than they look on the map , so again if you visit in the middle of the day be sure to take plenty of water. If you've been to Versailles, you'll have an idea what to expect. If you're lucky one of the concerts will be on too, making it a perfect place to chill out.

The Ponte Vecchio looks really nice from the banks - but once you're actually on it, it's just a street of jewellers' shops fighting over the tourist dollar. What else? There's a good street market North of the Duomo at another church - I think it was San Lorenzo or San Rafael, but they all begin to merge after a while - where you can get silks, leather goods, and all the usual crap - be prepared to haggle. The main shopping streets are South-West of the Duomo.

I hope you know to eat and drink standing up in the cafes, or pay three times as much for the privilege of a waiter spilling your drink as he brings it to you. And of course the standard advice about not eating anywhere showing pictures of the food on the walls, or within sight of a major tourist attraction, still applies.

One other word to the wise: if you can avoid driving, do so. It's really scary. You will have three lanes marked your side of the junction, and two at the exit. Then as you wait, two more cars will come up and squeeze themselves either side of yours and half in your lane. Then a swarm of mopeds will buzz up and, sussing you as a weak target, will all ride in front of your car. Then the lights change and all hell is let loose. You stall, you miss the lights, the guy behind starts swearing and waving his hands, and then it all happens over again. And when you do get across, there's *nowhere* to park. Like nowhere at all, not even in the "Park and Ride" areas (if the signs last long enough to actually get you to one). Driving anywhere in Italy requires nerve, skill, and more than a little luck. Driving in Florence needs a PhD in all three.

If you get time for trips elsewhere, go to Siena. Its cathedral is prettier than Florence's, it's big enough to spend all day in but you can feel the countryside around you, it's a cool place.

Have fun - and if I find that number I'll post it here.

Thanks! Lots of useful tips there. We are staying near that market place I think so it should be handy. You managed to get a lot done in just a few days. I think the concerts in the Boboli Gardens sound best. I will be taking the digital camera so hopefully we will have some nice and not too fuzzy pictures to put up in the article.

Get articles in batches of ten from Mark. We look at what is in the guide, if there are say 12 entries on cheese, we can merge them into one article, giving all contributors credit. Or we reject. We talk to each other, so we can discuss the merits of articles, sort out UK US translations and gossip generally. Mark is being very nice to us and attempting (in my case anyway) to teach us XML and html. There will be a page on this for everyone I think when they have time to write it. It is quite interesting to do. Forces me to be constructive about some subjects that I know very little about. There are some good entries but a lot of the earliest stuff was very off-beat coming from another planet - content is noticably improving now though....At the end of the day Mark can overule our decision, he is after all the editor... so he actually does the accepting and rejecting at the end of the day. Pleased to see you two are talking to Mark about the review section. Sounds interesting too.

Hopefully we'll be doing less editing and more organising but I think we'll chat about it tonight and see if we can come up with some ideas for Mark.

I think you are all doing a good job and had my first rejection on Monday. I pity the poor sod who ends up with the resubmitted article because it is now so fact packed it is untrue!

Hi Setup Weasel!

I saw your comments and I think your ideas are very good. I just wanted to make it clear that we sub-editors only kept quiet about the scheme because we were specifically asked to (and even then some could barely contain themselves ).

I understand Mark's reasons (or what I believe them to be). First of all, I guess he didn't want any arguments about who was going to be chosen - that could only be decided between the Editor and Producer. Secondly, if people were unwilling to participate - and there's no reason why people would *have* to give their time - they could decline in private. Thirdly, if the scheme bombed and it became clear that Hoi Polloi were not editorial material, the scheme could be gracefully buried without further argument. I'm willing to bet that the list of names went up within a day or two of Mark receiving samples of everyone's work and deciding they were up to it, and that doesn't seem too bad a feedback time to me.

If you've got other points to make about how it could be run better, why not contribute to the h2g2 support forum over at http://www.floor42.com ? Half of the sub-editors are members there, and TDV staff drop in occasionally too, so your voice will be heard.

Can MarkyB, Doug Dastardly and anyone else interested in editing reviews please go to page http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=17555&thread=14781 and put their two pennyworth in!

Sounds just what they are looking for, bet it gets in this time will have a look at it...

That's OK

My problem isn't with peer editors. I just thought when the peer edited guide pages were released the explanation should have been released too. I have no problem with the fact everyone cannot be picked to edit (not that I wouldn't have liked to be asked). It's just that when the peer edited pages came out the plan moved from being totally experimental to instituted if only on a probationary level. That is when they should have told everyone. It became half public and that was the problem. H2G2 wanted to keep it hush hush even when it was sticking out like a sore thumb. That kind of thing kills trust, and I thought it was stupid, that was what I was trying to say.

It is not the peer editors fault, I am trying to say that h2g2 needs to be more open about policy.

I will come over and check out floor42. Thanks a lot.

First, an apology if you found floor42 not working - Kate's moving it from one server to another and it's a bit flaky. I'm sure it'll be back in a few days.

Secondly, on the timing of the announcement - as I was trying to say, some sub-eds like Peta and Smiley Ben got their first batch back very quickly, and they were able to get published straight away: some took a few days. I guess they didn't want to announce it until they could publicise all the names, and didn't want to publicise the names until the people had shown that they would and could do the job.

In a way, the *fact* of the scheme was no secret from the moment the first sub-edited article appeared - Ginger jumped on it straight away, and Jim gave a straight answer to her question (as is his wont). The *who* was, I surmise, kept quiet to save the blushes of anyone who didn't settle into the role. That seems reasonable and fair behaviour.

This site belongs to, was created by, and keeps running thanks to the efforts of TDV. If we sometimes forget that and think of it as *ours*, that's a real compliment to them for the democratic way it's run, but we can't expect any more "ownership" (be that advanced notice of changes or a say in future direction) than they choose to give us.

I'm not trying to flame you for criticising them - and I'd stress that my only interest in the success of this site is the enjoyment I get out of it - just to get the point across that sometimes they'll have to simply make a decision without a full public enquiry. Otherwise nothing will change - and I hope we all agree that the changes they're instigating are generally for the better.

The thing is, I wasn't upset by this, but it appears other people were and I understand. Quite honestly, I don't have time to check every forum for the answer to every question I have.

The thing is, I just thought the policy of keeping quiet was odd. I understand it up until the first posting of the first peer reviewed page, but after that it makes no sense. Jim has been answering to posts, but if I were him, seeing that more than a few people were confused and upset by the move, I would have posted something on the main page to reach everyone who he wouldn't reach on his posts. Know what I mean?

I just think h2g2 can learn form this and handle other similar things differently.

Development of the site is down to everybody - editing has really encouraged me to write more personal articles too, about the things that are important to me personally... everyone who writes seriously for the site is making a real and important contribution.