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

Rushing to post something once again, I ran out of typing energy yesterday evening.

I'd been on site, editing, not modding, just editing all day yesterday. Apart from the odd cup of tea with visitors, cooking supper and tidying the kitchen the rest of the day was spent subbing Entries.

There's a bit of magic that happens to Entries after they've been subbed. They're polished. Which means that Galaxy Babe or I run our eyes over the subbed version for any missed typos and so forth, and we add the images. That doesn't sound much does it? But it does take a lot of time in actual fact. And GB is far better at it than I am. Truthfully, her eyes are better. Mine still see double.

Adding the images brings the Entry to life, but you've probably noticed I've started to make a few pictures myself, for fun. I've not had time to make any this week though. After the muumuu attempts you could well be relieved.

The approach is that we line up Entries that have matching images as soon as we can, but it depends on how fast a sub returns an entry. There is an outer time limit, but often life doesn't work like that so we never really know which Entries will come back each week. But when they do, we hope there's an illustration or photograph ready at the same time. Not only for the Entry itself, but a different sized image for the front page. Although I'm not an artist, officially, I sometimes help out by finding an image we can use, and sometimes even resizing or loading the image into the database.

Nothing seems to be matching up this week at all. While we've got Entries returned from the subs, they're only half of a pair, or one out of a series. The subs are working as hard as they can, but often have to wait for a final say so from the author, who may be wanting to alter something at the last minute. Or, we may be waiting for a special illustration. By now we should have all the entries data loaded onto a holding spreadsheet, but the sheet itself hasn't even been made ready. I am at least a day behind.

And then the realisation came that we should mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor, so there's a heap of stuff to do with getting this sorted out as well. We've got a great little team who work on promoting Entries via Facebook and Twitter. As well as putting them onto the Front pages of h2g2. But I've still got to locate these Entries and see if they need curating, or if they're not illustrated, see if we can get a picture found or made.

So, I'm doing all this, and making notes via the software we use to co-ordinate the work behind the scenes on 'Trello'. (If you need to keep track of stuff, I recommend it to you, it's free and easy to use.) We have to do this, because we don't work in an office where we can have a wall chart, paper notes and chat over the actual water cooler, we're totally virtual. We all work from home and sometimes I know we're all working longer hours than you can imagine.

And while I'm subbing/polishing/curating and generally getting in a faff about stuff, I'm using the test version to send Milla and Pastey any last minute observations about stuff.

This sounds like a moan! or a prequel to the fact that the Front page update may be a bit slow this weekend. I even started writing this journal at 7am and it's now 8.30, the intervening time has been filled with talking via Skype, reading some emails and more talking via Skype with other Core Team members. I might break for coffee now

Oh, but I found a photo of Niagara Falls we can use for the Front page in the meantime. That's lucky.

Until the last few days, I'd never realised that the assassination of JFK and the beginning of Dr Who fell near the same date!

Amazing what can be found in h2g2


lil x

Well done on all your work, Lanza. Having done it, I know the amount of work involved.

I think an important aspect of the "polishing" is also the fact that every entry published has been read at least once by a Guide Editor. I wouldn't feel happy publishing something if it hadn't been read.

I've a picture somewhere of Dr Who (Matt Smith) which one of my daughters did. You can have it if it comes in useful...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eoinmcauley/4535422378/in/set-72157610260536488/

Thanks - that is a splendid illustration. Are you sure? Which Entry do you think it would most suit? Here's a quick link to the Doctor Who categories. C991

I know very little about the Doctor, but we probably need a few more newer Entries. Especially now you've offered the drawing.

This seems a great Entry, and it mentions Matt Baker A907544

Re 2:

An interesting observation, Lil!

It follows up to an article I saw on the net the other day about two great persons who happened to die on the same day as JFK: C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley

These literary giants went silently into the night without anyone taking notice because everybody was occupied with the assassination of the president

Which reminds me of the old question: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?"

I knew that CS Lewis died that day – there's been lots of speculation about possible connections between Narnia's wardrobe and the Doctor's , but hadn't realised Aldous Huxley died that day too.

<BB<

Wasn't it Farrah Fawcett-Major who died on the same day as Michael Jackson and got sort of forgotten because of that?

- rather far from the more important topics of this thread. Well done editors. Dr Who and JFK - hmmmmm - coincidence or not?


When I retire in a few years, I may well re-join the editing team. Things have changed a bit since I was a subeditor, I'll bet.

We'd certainly welcome you TC, a sharp pair of eyes and attention to detail are what we need

OK, I've looked through all the Doctor Who entries, and Iz's picture isn't really relevant to any of the ones that haven't got a picture. Although Matt Smith is mentioned in the "Title Sequence" entry, that entry is really about the visual impact of the title sequence, so it could only really be illustrated by a representation of the title sequence.

Incidentally, the picture of Roger Delgado on the "Roger Delgado" entry could easily be re-used on the "The Master" entry, as Delgado was the classic "Master".

"That doesn't sound much does it?" [Lanzababy]

It sounds like a lot to me!

[Amy P]

Deb

Lanza, I'll start sub-editing again after my Christmas concert which is on 9th December.

yay! Thank you Gnomon. Many hands make light work!

I finished the Blemnox saga a few minutes ago. All that's left is posting the chapters on the appropriate days.

I have a concert on December 13.

I just want to add my thanks, too

I volunteer because I want to and it is something I enjoy, but even so, it means a huge amount to me that what I do is appreciated - I appreciate you taking the time to thank us and keep us going, and I really appreciate all your hard work as well