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

Hello, Nosebagbadger. I was wondering if I could interview you for the April edition of SuperMarket – a monthly article about the Flea Market that appears in <./>ThePost</.>

You have the distinction of perhaps being the unluckiest person to have attempted a Flea Market Rescue, having (as far as I'm aware, please correct me if I'm wrong) attempted 3 Flea Market Rescues to date, but only having one actually make it into the Edited Guide:

Enlisted Ranks of the US Air Force
Online Sympathy Scams
STV – the Single Transferrable Vote

I'd like to ask you some questions:

What made you decide to rescue these?
Would you only rescue articles about subjects you know well?
Have you approached a Flea Market Rescue any differently to how you write an article from scratch?
Is it easier or more difficult?
When you write a Flea Market rescue, how do you decide what to keep and what to edit, and how much of a right do you feel that you have in making decisions about the article?
Would you recommend doing Flea Market rescues to other researchers?

What made you decide to rescue Enlisted Ranks of the US Air Force, and did that one go smoothly?

What made you decide to abandon the rescue of Online Sympathy Scams?
How do you think you would feel about being on the other side, about someone else making changes to an entry you had written, if someone tried to rescue this entry?

With the STV – the Single Transferrable Vote entry, this entry was recommended by a scout, accepted out of Peer Review, only to be unusually returned back into Peer Review at the last moment, just when we expected it to be accepted into the Edited Guide. This must have been very disappointing for you – is there anything you'd like to tell us about how that felt?

Despite this, you have expressed an interest in rescuing another entry, English Legal System: Intoxication in Criminal Law Defence. What is it that attracts you about this entry?

I hope you'll feel able to answer some or all of these questions. If you'd prefer not to, that's okay, but I hope you would like to be the next person to take part in SuperMarket.

<BB<

This sounds very interesting, though while I might say rude words about the STV rejection, I do actually have a higher hit rate on flea market rescues than It might first appear


As well as my enlisted ranks entry I also have

A57241226 - Some Cold, Hard Facts About Ice
A87766690 - Volleyball



Depending on whether I feel like being sneaky I can also claim two more pseudo-FM rescues, which (with permission from the Eds) I grabbed from the author's PS which she was writing alongside the Volleyball entry, to make a mini-FM-project



But in any case, that just gives me a good thing to start the post entry

I'd be happy to do a post entry on this - and thanks for a good sized set of questions - if you'd just asked me to do something on the FM I'd been struggling for days

Sorry, didn't quite read your message right the first time

I'll message you back with my answers to each question (or do a basic entry with them and point you to it) in the next week or so

Thanks for agreeing to them - I'll let you have a think, and you can get back to me with your answers when you are ready. And I'll update my records so that you have the credit for those other two successful rescues.

If there are any questions you would like me to have asked, feel free to mention those questions and answer them too!

<BB<

Have you had a chance to think about this yet?

<BB<

Aye, sorry about not getting back to you - stuck in Rome

I'm a tad tired now, but I have a near completed set of answers sitting on my laptop (if I can find it) - I'll drop them in an entry in my PS or other form as wanted by you

Cheers
nbb

That's great - I look forward to reading it!

<BB<

Apologies that I couldn't get the piece in for today's edition - couldn't really plan for the family car crash stuffing up the week

Shall make sure it's in in the next few days - please remind me if i forget

That's okay, these things happen and obviously take priority. I'm sure we can get it in for the next issue.

<BB<

Sorry, still wondering if you have gathered your thoughts together

<BB<

I was just thinking BB is going to send me a tetchy reminding note

I'll either drop them off in the next half our, or in the next two hours (i realise the first falls into the latter)

If not, pester me

Ok, in before the two hour mark

I've put it into an entry: A87792709

You may or may not want to fiddle with the layout, you will presumably want to add some stuff before or after from yourself

Please tell me if there's anything else wrong (answers not belonging etc)

Thanks - you know what they say, better late than never

I confess I probably will fiddle with the layout and add stuff before and after, as you've said, possibly add a comment from this conversation too, but it should appear in soon!

<BB<

That's fine, just wanted to link the answers to the right questions - actually making it look nice is your job