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

Did you get your five from the editorial staff?

Hey DT
Sorry I didn't notice this posting sooner.

Na, not yet - As you saw on the other forum, Peta volunteered along with yourself & Ginger - No Rush - it is something I would like to run in December running upto Xmas and the New Year. - Jim is otherwise occupied with Little C - Peta is feeling her way around and I haven't as yet had any contact with Anna - Plenty of time to organise something - You know me, when I want to push anything - I really push.
Thanks for the thought.
vegiman

Just to let you know, the original entry I suggeted you have for this, Footnotes, has been marked for guide inclusion, so use 186590 (banks) instead. It's currently full of typos and grammar problems, but hopefully I'll have time to give it a going over prior to your doing this new fun run!

Why not leave a couple of errors in the article and see if they are picked up. - I am not sure where the listings are for articles about to be edited, perhaps you can enlighten me. I did see it posted somewhere but can't remember where.

BTW have you popped over to the page Loony and I are pushing - h2g2 rejections
http://www.h2g2.com/A183250
we are making a listing of the most useful slips so that others can benifit - if you have any to give of your own or comments that writers can benifit from you can post it to that page or email me at
[email protected]

Take care and thanks
vegiman

Subs can see which articles have been submitted when they look at the index. I don't know if anyone else can ... As far as Footnotes goes, I knew this had been edited as the page number changed! Judging by the date of that article, I would imagine we are currently some 13 weeks behind. The queue is slowly dropping though with the new sub-eds (with the first 10 of us, we simply managed to stabalise it!)

I will leave some errors in the Banks article, but I think it could do with some restructuring. Although I am well aware of what your Fun Runs are all about, I think it might be a little dangerous for a sub-ed to sumbit what is pretty much a first draft of an article. I'm sure you can see why.

I have looked at a183250, and although I cannot really give you any exciting rejections, I will try to post some more advice over the next week or so that is of a more personal nature than guideline oriented. Some is below ...

I have had a few rejections, but almost all of them were old pre-rules articles, and were pretty bad (including some ficticious ones). Two that weren't were Banks, which has now been rewritten (Mark rejected this prior to my becoming a sub-ed with something along the lines of "A good article, but not enough "meat" for a full guide entry. Makes a nice user page though"), and "Chalk", an entry that I supidly forgot to update a few weeks back which was rejected for being humorous rather than informative. I agreed!

One thing I have noticed is that information tends to work. From my own entries, Fax Machine, Yateley, and Bubble Wrap would all have been rejected if they'd have stayed as they were when submitted. But I continued to add and work on them until they were made guide entires. I guess this means that people should be aware that they shouldn't just dump entries once they hit that submit button! Perhaps this won't be the case in the future - maybe everyone will get a note after only a few days, but while the queue is near on three months, it's good to go back to old submitted work and reflect on whether it's really as good as it could be.

My main personal irritants are twofold: bad spelling and bad HTML / XML. The former can be forgiven in some circumstances, but it is very obvious when someone has written on-line rather than off-line. In a forum, I don't care about spelling, but there is no excuse in a submitted entry. Of course, there will be some errors - no-one is "infalerbal" (sic), but when there are constant errors, that's when I have problem. XML should not be done unless people know what they're doing. I know that sounds harsh, but there are many ways to practice, and too few people do. Also, we get raw XML, and believe me, it looks a lot different to what everyone sees on screen! The worst cock-up is the use of the tag which randomly duplicates sections of text if wrongly used. People should be aware that is the way to go. This may seem utterly petty, but when one is trawling through a whole batch of articles, sometimes it's these little things that can push an entry in one direction or another.

Other stuff: one liners almost always never work on their own. However, they *should* be used within articles! There are a few entries I've rejected and thought "if only that joke had some content wrapped around it". This isn't one or two, but maybe ten ...

Soapbox articles almost always get binned. It's okay to have an opinion, but it must be balanced, and must not take over the article. That's what forums and the journal are for.

Advertising: I kid you not, I have had a half dozen or more articles with web links and a very small amount of text that is worthwhile. These are really just time wasters and very very annoying!!

Hope this helps.

It's a great help and I will pass it on to Loony. Mmmm or maybe !! - It gives me another idea for a page that could be called "The Subs Advice" (I'll work on a snappy title) and these hints and tips could form a base that other subbies could add to. That and all subs could answer questions on the page(s) forums(s). As this will be available to all subs, it will not tie one down to answer and leave it open to those who have the time to do so - What do you think? - I look forward to your reply.

As for the article having a few mistakes - I will advertise the fact that it is being done - like a quiz (Sortof) - which will make it a little different from a normal fun run.

I have just completed 'Oh Gnats' which was my entry in the first fun run - A complete rewrite - with the help of Hypoman and other reseachers, I think it is the best thing I have done on a subject that I have had no previous knowledge of. I am going to allocate blame to all who helped with the reference reseacher thingy. I hope others will follow my example.

It is factual with a touch of humour - let me know if it would pass your eagle eye through to the guide.

its at:
http://www.h2g2.com/A96851

All the best and thanks
vegiman