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

hello andrew,

thought i'd come over and have a look at your haydn article, since you mentioned that you were going to write one about the guy. i think it's a great idea that there are people who are taking the initiative to write stuff about classical music and composers - there are woefully few articles about the former, and almost none about the latter (we're trying to rectify that though - our article on bela bartok is a work in progress).

have you had time to look around h2g2? an article you write doesn't have to stay 'just an article' on your page for people to stumble upon. there are various places where you can have your article published, depending on the nature of your article:

(long post follows)

1. if your article is of a factual nature, and contains a balanced, unbiased discussion of the subject, the best home for it would be the EDITED GUIDE. this is the one that you can access from the main page. an article may be listed under several different categories depending on the subject. however, an edited guide should not contain personal opinions, especially if they contain the pronoun 'i'. (that is to say, it should be written from a third party point of view) to get it into the edited guide, your article would first go through at least one week of peer review, where it will be read by other h2g2 researchers, who will usually offer their comments or suggestions. then, when it is picked, it goes through the usual subediting process and waiting period - and before you know it, it winds up on the front page. the highest 'honour' (imho!!) is having your article headlined, which means it also gets a neat little graphic which is displayed both on the front page and in your article.

2. if your article is of a factual nature but contains strong opinions, then it would fit in quite well in the H2G2 POST (our very own newspaper!). the post features loads of different types of articles from comedy to rants to comic strips - and so is generally author-friendly.

3. if you write fiction (which the edited guide does not accept, sadly), you may want to send it to the ALTERNATIVE GUIDE where they feature various works of original fiction. a great deal of it is currently science fiction, but i believe they will readily accommodate other genres as well.

i believe there are other places for other works as well, but you'd have to poke around a bit...

(i hope you're not already thinking, 'good grief, less than a week at h2g2, and already there's a bore spouting electrons at me' )

anyway, once you're done with your article - well, think about it. it's sort of a waste to put so much effort into writing an article, only to leave it on your page, isn't it? why don't you try making the guide?



farlander.

Hi Farlander

Thanks a lot for the photons - the more the merrier. The Haydn piece is a bit biased at the moment, more literary (well, journalistic) than factual , tho perhaps bits of it could be put together again within an entry more in the scientific h2g2 edited guide style .

If I want to send the piece to the Guild, what's a good way of doing it?!?

Meanwhile, I have discovered there *is* a serviceable Haydn article already in the guide! And not in the musicians guild section, as far as I can see. Take a look at A653005 - it's very good although it could be filled out a bit.

All the best!

re: sending it to the guild - well, you can send the link (and an intro) to either danny or danny's sidekick - that would be me . i'll check with danny, but i don't think we have any rules or regulations about accepting contributions from members, except that the articles have to contain electrons. are you done with the article, or would you like to polish it a bit first?

I'm happy with the piece now.

If there are too many uses of "I" in it for the guild, I could surgically edit them out, although the article might not work without them.

If you need it in GuideML format, do let me know.

Meanwhile, here's a link (I think):

A1154387 Franz Joseph Haydn - my composer for a desert island: a self-explanatory piece by arch-enthusiast Andrew Soane

All the best!

Hi Farlander

I'm back in action now (after another article got in the way - not, alas for the Music Guild), and I was wondering, is there anything else I should be doing about the piece on Haydn... I have converted it into GuideML. You asked for a link to the piece, and I sent something in the last message, but I don't know whether what I sent (a page number!) was what you were asking for.

All the best!

hello andrew!

danny's added your article to the musicians' guild directory at A425161. he's also suggested -and i agree whole-heartedly with this - that you try submitting the piece to the post. that way, other researchers and readers besides guild members get to read the article.



far

Greetings Farlander with the new nickname! I was thinking of changing my own rather boring one... but I digress. Thank you for the advice, and I have sent the piece to the Post.

With best wishes

saw your article in the post. good work! contribute a couple more and you'll earn yourself a post writer badge.

Thanks very much! I will work on it!
By the way, Shazz suggested that other people from the Guild might be interested in sending in articles on their favourite "Desert Island" composer, or band... could be interesting!

hmm.. maybe i should start thinking about my own selection . it's seven pieces/songs, isn't it?...or is it ten? either way i foresee trouble....

I think it's 8 pieces. I disregarded any rules, and chose 11. I don't think anyone's counting!