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

Hmmm... your main problem with the system is that you aren't consulted about the final version of an article?

I can only speak for myself here, but if you included a little note at the end of each article to the effect that you'd like to approve the version I end up with, I'd be only too happy to mail it to you...

In fact, I'd be happier doing that in all cases... that wouldn't work within the current system because we'd have to wait an indefinite amount of time for a reply, and since we're working in batches, the whole process would grind to a halt...

But if you can respond to the proposed changes within, say, a week, I think it'd work quite well...

*shrug* Not an ideal solution, I grant you.

I actually think it fairly likely that the system will change at some point, as the tech guys get more involved and the whole process becomes more and more automated... still, it's not going to happen *soon*.

Although, one thing which *is* going to happen soon is the arrival of perhaps 25 new sub-eds... which should mean the whole system is under less pressure, which can't be a bad thing...

26199 (the eternal optimist)

I did some research into what's going on with the approval waiting time and wrote an article for the POST. Take a look tonight (if it gets in, that is). The findings aren't to encouraging though.

Hmmm? The reason waiting times are so bad is because there are 1174 entries in the queue... but we're getting a whole batch of new sub-eds in soon (they're undergoing editing tests first), which should help reduce the pile somewhat... but, currently, you have to wait for about a thousand entries to be edited before we get around to one that you've just written.

Which, to me, sounds like quite a good reason for a 17-week delay...

26199

The problem isn't just that their's a 1000 entry pile, the problem is the pile is growing.

*shrug* It seems to have fallen since yesterday, at any rate...

In fact, I'm fairly sure I can remember a point when it was 1400... but I might be wrong about that.

In any case, that ought to change when we get our new wave of subs - added to which, I've decided to try and get a batch done every week, two weeks at the outside. Problem solved .

If the queue gets *too* big, they could unsubmit all the articles, and ask people to submit 'em again if they're *sure* they've got them as good as they can get... that ought to reduce the pile somewhat, I'd think .

26199

Ought to reduce it a lot, considering how many people seem to have vanished while waiting for entries to be edited. Not to mention a few curmudgeons like myself pulling out of the process

Yep! And all the people who just submit an entry in draft form because they think (rightly) that they'll have time to finish it before it gets to the end of the queue...

In fact, thinking about it, it'd be a good idea to submit some blank entries now just in case you have something you want to write about without waiting seventeen weeks for it to be included in the Guide...

Of course, if *everyone* did that, the queue would grow to perhaps 10k entries, most of 'em blank...

This sort of problem, like many others in life, gets worse faster the worse it gets...

26199