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

Hey Kes,

Haven't seen you in a while, and I had some questions for you so I thought I'd pop by and see how you were doing!

First, is the Music project ready for Sub-editor-scrutiny yet!? I've started a new hopefully-someday-to-be-edited entry on Marshall Mathers (eminem) and so far... well I've got an introduction and pages and pages of hardcopy notes. I'd also like to do one on Angels, and I'm trying to make sure there aren't any other edited entries on them, or find other people who are as interested in the topic.

Okay, rambling! I shall steer myself firmly into my second topic, which is The Terran Embassy. I'm just looking for an opinion here. I approached Peta on the subject of helping with translation and linguistic stuff, and her reply was, understandably, that this wouldn't be possible because the BBC could be held liable if a non-employee let something pass that was unacceptable. Do you think I should try to keep the project going? And if yes, have you any thoughts on how?

Okay, that's a pretty long mouthful, so I'll leave it at that and hope to hear from you!

Lady K
~8~

Hey Lady K!

Good to hear from you again ... I was just thinking about getting in touch with you ... then RL work intervened.

The Music project - most of the entries are currently in sub-editing. Just let me know when your Faure item (A481510) is completed (it looks like it to me ...) , and I'll point our sub-editor at it Not sure how long til we're finished and released, but we're well on the way

eminem is rather outside my spectrum ... but I'd be happy to look at the article and comment, if you'd like.

Angels! I assume you've used the Search the Guide function, and it returned nothing ... in that case, an entry on Angels is well overdue! There would almost certainly be someone in the Guardian Angels who would be interested. Would you like me to mention your idea in the Angels' off-site e-group?

The Embassy ... I wish we could do more to help with the translations, but I take Peta's point. I'm disappointed that it's taking the Moderators so long to deal with non-nglish material ..... My feeling is that the only function currently open to the Embassy would be to offer to provide English versions of foreign language material, so that the original authors could submit the english version for inclusion in the guide ... rather monocultural, but maybe better than not having the material available at all ... Should work for Peta, because we wouldn't be "OKing" something in a foreign language to go into the guide ... we'd be providing text in English, which could be moderated through the usual process.

Good to hear from you!

Oh yes, the Faure entry is complete -- although when you didn't get back to me about sub-editing I started tinkering again. I am trying to figure out how to put my references in "Accepted GuideML Tag" format... and failing. Tried footnotes, but I can't figure out how to make ONE footnote work for ALL the places I want that note to apply... then tried References, but that means I have to put the info in Link format, which I can't do with the authors name... yadda yadda. But just say the word and I'll stop tinkering and put it back the way it was to let the sub-eds worry about references and that.

The eminem article is far from ready for scrutiny at this point! hehe but maybe when it's done I'll ask you to have a looksee?

As for angels, there is an (I believe unedited) entry on the traditional Judeo-christian Archangels, but all it is is the names of the seven and I think their functions. Not a whole lot there at any rate. MY problem is I have loads of info and sources, but I don't know how to organize it all or in a lot of cases, whether the info is valid or simply one person's opinion. And as you may have noted, I have trouble being selective with good information! I would love to have some help on the project though, if any of the Guardian Angels would like to offer assistance!

That's a good suggestion regarding the embassy. It REALLY saddens me that the Guide has to be this way... but I won't go into that. Perhaps if we can encourage some of our bilingual researchers to return to the embassy, we can work on that idea.

~8~

Actually, I never got the hang of any of the tricky Guide ML either .... I leave it all to my friendly sub-editor! So, just let me know when Faure is back the way he was (hehehe) ... and I'll pass it to the sub. I think it would be right to "freeze" it now and get it into the release process.

The Angels idea - I'll circulate it round the Angels e-group, quoting your Researcher number for contact. Let me know what response you get

Glad you like the translation idea. Yes, the way things are is a big shame, but if we offer a useful service, maybe we can start to influence the Powers in the Towers ....

To let you know, Faure is finished, frozen back the way he was. All ready for the sub-ed or peer editing stream or whatever it is!

I've already gotten one response about the angels article from Em. I will probably make a start on the article today.

I updated the Terran Embassy entry with a sort of letter indicating the current walls we're running up against, as well as the ideas we've come up with so far. The entry reference is in my nickname. I don't know if people will flock to the page to see what's up, but it's a start for now. I wonder the altavista babelfish might help in this endeavour as well...

~8~

OK - Gabriel (composer, not angel Hehehe) is now in for sub-editing. Thanks! I'll check out the Embassy page a bit later, and comment in a thread there. Nice to know it exists again ... I'll help out there, of course. Yes, babelfish should be used (imho) ... the moderators seem wary of it for reasons I've not figured out ... but nothing to stop us using it when we need to.