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

In Pliny you can also get to the Writing Workshop at: http://h2g2.com/entry/Writing-Workshop

As we're sorting things out and organising where they sit best (such as a central page listing the different writing areas) we'll be getting the named links in.

Don't all shoot me down...
I wonder if the site itself, when someone goes to the FP really invites people not only to read but to write too?

For me the words "edited" guide, as someone who stumbles on the site, or wants to look at something, still don't mean anything unless you are fairly well acquainted with it. It could be that the site itself doesn't seem to invite entries to be written?

for me the "latest activity" part of the page is the least interesting thing - not least if we want the place to be seen as something that we can create and people should feel as though it is a great thing and they want to contribute, rather than using it as a message board (yes, I'm guilty of that)

Wiki is seen as something like that, that you can go to for information but also to contribute something too. And yes, I know we're not the same but we are vaguely similar... If you're not used to something approaching the process of academic writing, do the words "peer review" mean anything? as a first time visitor, or fairly recent researcher, does that speak to you?
(it's all top of the head stuff.)

sorry, had another thought.
Entries - I've also never been sure if that is the right word to get people thinking "ah yes, I'll write an entry" as opposed to "I'll write an article"

"Entry" implies to me a submission into the Earth Edition of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy publication.

"Article" is a far looser word - maybe something for the in-house newspaper, or something for your Personal space.

But then, we've always used "Entry" for both, haven't we?

But how long have you been a researcher? Entry for me is clear, edited entry is also clear.

But for a fresh researcher - I'm not so sure.

Likewise.... been here far too long to be able to however temporarily 'forget' what an 'entry', 'article', or edited entry', etc., is, in order to try then think of what one who did not know, might conceviably think* it might be . . . though, if anyones not* registered, and has* read entrys, they oughta know what an 'entry' is, due to the blurb on each entry page, when one isn't loged in (something like 'thousands of entrys like this on h2g2... in order to leave a comment, or write your own entry for the guide, you'll need to register'.... err, I've probably remembered that incorreclty, but its vaguely soemthign lke that I thinks)

If the raison d'etre of the site is clear enough - building the Earth Edition of the Hitch-doobrey - then 'Entry' should be clear enough to new researchers.

Confusion will only come when they aren't sure what the site stands for.

As I was going down the stair
I met a man who didn't care
He didn't care again today
I love 'em when they get that way

I've been not caring now for a while. I found running h2g2 was too much of a strain for me. I cared too much about everything, and had to work really hard to make sure it was all up to my standards. I quit my Editor job, but continued as a sub-editor, curator and tester.

Even that was too much strain - if I reported a problem and it wasn't fixed, I considered it a personal insult, when of course it wasn't. Pastey and the developers can only do so much.

So I've settled back into doing something that I know I do well - writing about a range of different topics. I've six entries in Peer Review at the moment, although I admit one of them isn't really ready. If people like them, they'll be picked and form part of the Guide. If they don't, I'm not going to worry. I've benefited from writing them.

I'm also working on a seventh Entry: A763869 Gandalf. This needs a bit more work but should be ready soon. I'm going on my holidays tomorrow, so I'll probably finish it when I get back.

I'm currently drafting an article under the working title, 'Life On Mars'.

Since there's already an edited entry under that title about the TV series by that name (Which I watched regularly while it was I production, I'll have to find another title before I'm done.

The writing is going slower than I like but I'm so far satisfied with quality of the writing and content under four major headings:

> Pre-space age conceptions.
> Space age explorations._
> Xenobio?logical potential.
> Colonization.

Are you going to study the 'Barsoom' version of Mars in any detail?

Two of those six entries have been picked! So now I have 'only' four entries in Peer Review.

On Barsoom, no, though I've made some brief references to Johannes Kepler, Percival Lowell and H.G. Wells.

My focus on this is realism.

Recumbantman, re: post 15, rather than writing your first draft directly to Peer Review, write it instead to something like notebook, as simple a word program as possible and keep a copy on your own computer, or if you prefer, a disk.

Then copy and paste to Peer Review, correct for any incompatibilities between your system and GuideMl and you finish with a copy in Peer Review ready for fine polish and a copy on your own machine in case anything goes wrong.

I can see the sense in that, but it's not the way I do it. I like to add to my entry wherever I happen to be, so it is useful for it to be on h2g2 during the writing process.

I don't do that either because it seems whatever you do that isn't writing directly into the guide means that later you get all sorts of people going on about removing curly apostrophes - and if you're not sure what they're on about it can be so morale destroying you don't bother finishing the entry.

Not that that sort of thing has ever happened to me

Pointing out curly apostrophes shouldn't be done in Peer Review. I hope we've got past that phase.

Also, the guide now has no problem wiyh curly apostrophes.

I'm a Notepad user too.

I tend to open three or four Notepad windows when I'm researching/writing a larger topic.

I paste raw material/facts/articles into one.

I may paste useful links into a separate one.

I write an outline structure in a new window - topics to cover, sections, etc. I may also type random ideas/snippets in here.

I open them all up then start writing the article in yet another new Notepad window.

Having said that, I do have a small number of entries (usually shorter ones) where I just sat down and wrote linearly in one session.

Ditto, Icy.

Also, I usually have 3 or 4 iterations of the web browser up, (Firefox), one where I'm composing prior to posting, another with anything I'm responding to, with a couple more for the purpose of doing web searches.

If no transfer of data between iterations is required I may use a separate web browser, usually Opera, meanwhile handling email and routine transaction on Chrome.

One of my pet peeves on Android/Chrome OS, it doesn't allow multiple iterations of web browsers with editing commands operating between them... yet.

.also I'm very inhibited about putting all my eggs in one basket and like to a have backup copy of anything important in hand...

A cloud note app, like Evernote. That way you could still edit it from anywhere and any device.