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

the disillusioned with PR group meets, can I join you please.

Hi Micheal, the frustrations of PR have finally got to me. Both from a reviewers and an authors point of view.

It's difficult to know what to feel when a quite a few reviwers post positive comments about ones Entry, along with constructive advice to improve it, then along comes one of the best known, and respected reviewers, trashes it,(my perspective) and suggests I make changes that 1)I don't want to, and 2)I don't think I can, if I did want to. but I think this reviewer has so much influence, that without the changes, the Entries not going anywhere. I know the reviewer means well, but not everyone writes in the same way, and different things are of interest to different people.

There's so much conflict of basic advice in PR. Even among the long term reviwers. One saying it's a guide, you don't need to include everything about the subject, another saying, you need to write more in depth about the subject. One says short factual interesting Entries are ok. Another says you need to expand the Entry, add more information.

for dumping this on you, I'm not looking for any help, just somewhere to 'sound off' and unless I misunderstood, you were recently disillusioned with PR too.

Emmily

Hi Emmily...

It appears 'dis' is at least one of the places where the disillusioned, disenchanted, disenfranchised, dispossessed and generally disappointed come to remind themselves there are still kindred souls about. Although it's far from being any kind of 'club' that requires membership, and (so far, at least) it's even farther from being a hot bed of counter-boorishness activity.

I confess I have been reading the thread for your Postcards article, and I apologize for not leaping to your defence. I just haven't had the energy to take on the 'do it my way or you're an idiot' crowd for the past couple of weeks.

That may end soon - although I'm fairly sure my efforts won't get any further this time than last. The very idea that you shouldn't expect an entry to be 'accepted' because somebody, someday might want to write another entry is patently absurd, but those espousing this approach to the Guide are so vocal that a 'wee voice' in the wilderness will have little effect.

(Not surprisingly, the worst offenders are the same ones who subscribe to the idea that an entry about 'nail polish' should include sections on the chemical composition of fingernails, why we have fingernails, how they differ from toenails, at least 100 possible uses for fingernails, whether fingernails evolved from talons or dewclaws and, probably, why fish have neither fingernails nor toenails and what modern science is trying to do about that. Oh, and then there's the whole issue of other body decorations. . .)

Well, now it's my turn to say for responding with my own frustrations!!!

Anyway, Emmily, I'm happy you stopped by. Please know you are always welcome in my space, whether to vent, to cry on a sympathetic shoulder or simply to say hi and sit quietly (or noisily) with your or or or just a big ol' bit of .

m

Cheers for your reply Michael

Dis group/club may get bigger soon, I don't know if it's the sun getting to everyone or what, but there seems to be a lot of unnessecary harsh comments recently, which IMO are either driving authors out of PR or causing those with unsuitable entries to dig their heels in and refuse to remove them. None of which is giving a good first impression to those visiting PR for the first time.(:

Re-postcards: The bit about someone else writing another Entry in the future on saucy postcards is what got to me, as if we're now suppose to consider that possibility...

Emmily

>> 'Dis group/club may get bigger soon...'

I suspect you're right. I hope you're wrong. But I suspect you're right.

m

btw... even aside from that ridiculous 'somebody someday' thing, there were several comments regarding your Postcards entry that almost drove me to comment (for example, trying to put the 'scatological' and other examples of 'schoolboy' humor into the same category as 'saucy') but, as I could feel my adrenalin already pumping, I refrained from jumping in. I apologise.

>"I suspect you're right. I hope you're wrong. But I suspect you're right."

Hopefully, it will be like 'sods law' now it's been mentioned, it won't happen.

No worries about not defending my entry, chances are, it would have done no good, Thanks for the thought anyway.

I had to look up "scatological" in online dictionary to find out what it meant. I've looked at loads of saucy postcard web sites, not a single titter about those type.

Hmmm even while I was stressed and frustrated about the postcard entry, I was still planning my next entry, I must be a glutton for it.

Saw a weetabix advert on TV, with a scarecrow sumersaulting all over the place, and thought, ah, there's my next entry; scarecrows. Did a quick google, and discovered there is info. on scarecrows, and a book too, ordered the book from my local library.

I just hope they won't want to know the size of the scarecrow's clothes, what material they're made of, what the washing instuctions are, where they were made, etc etc etc

Emmily

Ooooh, you really are glutton for punishment, aren't you?
Well, if you must. Are you familiar with the Wizard of Oz? Great Scarecrow there; he sings my theme song...

I could while away the hours,
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin'
While my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.

I'd unravel every riddle
For any individ'le,
In trouble or in pain.
With the thoughts that I'd be thinkin'
I could be another Lincoln
If I only had a brain.

Oh, I could tell you why the ocean's near the shore.
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I'd sit,
And think some more.

I would not be just a nothin'
My head all full of stuffin'
My heart all full of pain.
I would dance and be merry,
Life would be a ding-a-derry,
If I only had a brain.

(by Harold Arlen and EY Harburg)


m

Am I familiar with the Wizard of Oz? You've never spent Christmas in the UK have you Michael That darn film is on TV sometime over Christmas almost every year. There's nothing wrong with the actual film, it's just that it's so predictable that it's on at Christmas time almost every year. Though I haven't watched it for quite a few years.

If there's no copyright issues I may include the scarecrows song, if there are copyright issues, I can link to a web page with it on.

There's also 'Wurzel Gummidge' a scarecrow, the main character in an old childrens TV program, you may not have heard of.

The scarecrow, type that was designed to scare away crows, dates back to 1592. never knew it went back that far. The book I'm getting from the library is called 'Scarecrow fact and fable' so hopefully it'll have some good info. in.

Emmily