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

Hi Lucinda,

I heard you were thinking of taking a bit of time out to explore the other writing options out there. Let me know how you get on, if you find anything truly fantastic or a site with some cool tools or features let me know, I'd be really interested.

Other than that I expect to see you around from time to time, drop in and say hi on my page when you're passing? That'd be cool.

Yeah, travelling is a good metaphor

If I find the answer, I'll let you know, but I can't see that happening any time soon... Take care

-Lucinda

And you...

and I thought the answer was 42?

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Thought I'd wave a hi at you from my ethereal half-existence on the fringes of h2g2.

You did suggest I let you know how I got on, so I thought I'd mention a couple of tools on wikipedia (and other wikis) that might be interesting from the perspective of your "peer moderation" plans. Wikis rely solely on peer review for just about everything, so getting it right is kind of important...

The first is recent changes (http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Recentchanges). This is somewhat similar to <./>Info</.>, but it's more prominent and more flexible. You may have had concerns raised about inappropriate content being posted in out-of-the-way Conversations, or as edits to old and unlinked Entries. If some BBC folk consider this a problem, a full featured Recent Changes style system may help.

The second is a seperated "my watchlist" and "my contributions". The watchlist is private, but you can see my contributions page here (http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Special:Contributions&target=MyRedDice).

The watchlist is similar to "My Most Recent Conversations" - it tracks which of my subscribed articles has been edited recently, so I can keep an eye on things. "My contributions" lists similar info, but with two important changes:

* sorted by date of posting, not date of last reply
* not effected by subscribe/unsubscribe

This allows people who've seen an inappropriate edit to easily review other edits by the same contributor. On h2g2 this can be hampered by judicious use of the "unsubscribe" link, or just by the simple expedient of subscribing to a high volume forum like <./>Askh2g2</.> or PeerReview. There is some loss of privacy, but having a private watchlist means that you can "lurk" easily, so it's a trade-off.

I wonder if either or both of these features might allow you to expand use of peer moderation w.r.t. foreign languages, wars, etc, or allow you to better convince people who are skeptical of the effectiveness of peer moderation?

-Martin