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

Your sub-editing http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A642944 "the Corporation of London".
I have a question, why have you added a footnote giving the definition of "conurbation"; this is not a technical term but a regular word that can be found in any dictionary, it is a word I have heard used in TV documentaries without an explanation being given, it is a word I seen in books without an explanation so why the explanation here? – it is a regular word in regular use.

First of all I am not a he

Conurbation was a word I had never heard before, so I footnoted it, figuring I probably wasn't the only one. After you posted this message I put the question to the subeditors email group as to whether or not it should have a footnote - the majority thought that it should, as many of them hadn't heard it before either, or had heard it but didn't know it's exact meaning, and also because of the wide audience at h2g2 - not everyone has the same grasp of the English language (non-native speakers, for instance, or younger people). If you'd rather, I can work it into the text rather than footnoting it, although I do feel it is important to have it explained in some way, so that the entry 'flows like honey'

Sorry for taking so long, by the way, to finish subbing this - exams have been on and life has been a bit hectic - I'll finish it tomorrow and let you know so that you can check it before I send it back.

ta, I as just curious as it struck me as dumming down which is something I am not in favour of, a few people queried it in peer review so I changed the line from "When people talk of London they are normally referring to the conurbation London" to "When people talk of London they are normally referring to the conurbation that is the Metropolitan County of London" so people could take a guess at its meaning from the context. It is a word that I learnt in Geography lessons when I was about 12 years old. I still think its dumming down to put the footnote in but at least I know the reasoning now.

A Correction
First Paragraph, "When people talk of London they are normally referring to the conurbation that is the Metropolitan County of London"
should read
"When people talk of London they are normally referring to the conurbation that is the Metropolitan County of Greater London."

My slip up

Fixed

I've finished subbing it, so if you want to have a look at it and let me know if it's ok, then I can send it back.

Its fine with the one reservation I already made.

However I just been reading through the peer review for this & one suggestion was made which I didn't put in, I'll draw it to your attention & you decide; In the first para "The City of London is one of the boroughs that make up the Metropolitan County of Greater London" it was suggested that a footnote be put in listing the other boroughs ?

if you decide yay they are

Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bexley
Brent
Bromley
Camden
City of Westminster
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Greenwich
Hackney
Hammersmith and Fulham
Haringey
Harrow
Havering
Hillingdon
Hounslow
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea
Kingston upon Thames
Lambeth
Lewisham
Merton
Newham
Redbridge
Richmond upon Thames
Southwark
Sutton
Tower Hamlets
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth

Thanks

you just had another sex change

Gosh I must be a confused person!!

That seems like it'd be a farily long footnote - I'm more than happy to put it in if you want, or I could just say the number of boroughs there are - up to you.

I'm not sure, it is long but the query in peer review was asking about specific boroughs, personally I think a number would be great but as I said your choice (sorry I'm wussing out here but I'm tired)

Ok, by my count that makes 33, so I've put "The City of London is one of the 33 boroughs that make up the Metropolitan County of Greater London " - I have a thing against big long footnotes - if I've counted wrong let me know and I'll email the Towers and have them change it - it's submitted as of now

woo hoo

"The City of London is one of the thirty-three boroughs that make up the Metropolitan County of Greater London - it is only about 1 square mile in area."

sorry to bug you, but it sort of reads like the 'Metropolitan County of Greater London' is only 1 squre mile

you also put in a link to freerepublic

would it not be better to link to the original source of this article
over at the economist ? (there is link to the original article from the page you linked to)

again sorry to be bugging you.