This week's View sighs in relief as h2g2's progress goes back to normal. It also explains what you can expect to happen as your entry moves through the approval process.

This week the View is very happy to report plenty of progress. Last week, it seemed that entries were being approved slower than writers were adding new ones. It is a relief to know this was just a one-week blip on the radar. This week, there are 289 entries remaining in the old Queue, compared to 339 last week. That's a healthy reduction of 50 entries.

However, I feel it is my duty to submit that there could be something wonky with my statistics. I usually count the number of threads on the Peer Review page to find out how many new entries have been added. I subtract any threads that are obviously not entry submissions. This week, my count showed the exact same number of entries as last week (388). But I could also verify that entries certainly have been added in the past week.

Is it possible threads are being removed from the Peer Review page? I can think of no other explanation. If my hypothesis is true, my statistics for recent weeks could also be wrong. Furthermore, I may no longer be able to continue many of my statistics on h2g2's progress.

The h2g2 Statistics page provides plenty of factual information for the old Queue, but it is silent on Peer Review. I can understand this, since Peer Review isn't an automated process in the same way. But it will be tough for me to tally statistics if the number of submissions to Peer Review is being adjusted at the one place that lists them.

I do hope the "missing" entries are ones that have either been moved to the What's Coming Up page, or ones that have received polite rejections by the Scouts. Unfortunately, I couldn't verify this in time for this week's View. If a change has been made, I can't find any official record of it anywhere.

Anyway, another 7 entries have been added to the What's Coming Up page in the past week, totalling 33 entries there now. In every way I can count reliably, h2g2 made a little more progress than usual last week.

You've done everything right, or so you feel. Your entry covers a new topic for the Guide, and it does so in an interesting and informative manner. It was written in the third person, organized carefully, and checked for spelling and grammar. You submitted it weeks ago. Nobody's told you it isn't up to par. What next?

If your entry has been chosen for the Edited Guide, you may not realize it immediately. Worse, you may get confused about what exactly is going on. But Don't Panic! No news is good news. Chances are that your entry is slowly making its way through the Editing process. While there isn't much you can do to speed things up, it helps to know what to expect.

First Someone Gives Your Entry the Okay

First, your entry may sit in limbo for weeks (or even months) before someone makes a decision about whether it is worthy of the Edited Guide. Anyone who has made these decisions will tell you they are harder to make than they look. There are so many entries that are almost, but not quite, ready for inclusion. In the end, these must be set aside for another day when the author (or another researcher) decides to add more content or make the entry otherwise more acceptable.

If you submitted your entry to the old Queue with the "Submit Entry" button, a Sub-Editor is making the final decision on your entry. He or she will send you a rejection email if you have been unlucky. This will tell you, sometimes in rather broad terms, why your entry was considered inappropriate. If you haven't gotten a rejection email yet, assume that nobody has made the ultimate decision so far. You will not know for sure that your entry was approved until the next phase of the process.

If you submitted your entry by creating a thread in the Peer Review forum, the h2g2 Scouts will decide whether your entry belongs in the Edited Guide. If their initial feeling is that your entry isn't ready for primetime, a Scout will likely tell you this politely. If they think your entry might be acceptable with more work, they'll tell you what they want to see before they give your entry their approval. If the Scout feels the entry is great as it stands, they will probably post a reply to let you know your entry has been added to the What's Coming Up page. This means they have approved your entry.

One difference between the old editing process and the new Peer Review process is that entries submitted to the old process are guaranteed a response. You will get either a rejection letter, or an acceptance letter will be sent the day your entry appears on h2g2's main page. With the new Peer Review process, you could theoretically end up in a limbo where you are never given a formal rejection or approval notice. If this happens to you, don't be afraid to post a reply to your own submission asking for clarification.

Then Editing Happens

The next step occurs when the Sub-Editor takes over your entry so they can make any changes to it that they deem necessary. By this time, they (or a Scout) have already decided the entry is worthwhile. Somewhere between the decision detailed above and the actual editing of the entry, additional weeks (or months) may have passed. But now it is time to dust off the words in your entry and give them a good polish.

The first thing the Sub-Editor will do is create a copy of the entry. At first, this copy will include the same content as your original. The "Entry Data" box on the upper right hand side of it will list you as the Researcher, and your entry's Sub-Editor will be listed underneath where it says "Editor."

This copy will miraculously appear on your personal space at h2g2 in the section marked "My Most Recent Guide Entries." It will be easily recognizable because there won't be any link to allow you to edit it, and it will have the word "pending" underneath. Pending is a wonderful word for would-be h2g2 writers. It means your entry will appear in the Edited Guide... someday. For those who submitted their entry to the old Queue, this is the first proof that things are indeed going well.

Since the Sub-Editor has control of this copy, he or she can make all the changes they like. You will not have the proper privileges to change the entry. And your originally copy may disappear from your page's listings during this phase of the process. And don't be surprised if your entry temporarily disappears from h2g2's search engine listings as well. Try not to worry too much about it. Check on the editing now and again, if you like.

If you strongly disagree with a change that has been made, you can take it up with the Sub-Editor by dropping a note in their user page. Try to save this for really serious disagreements, though. You may have to work with this Sub-Editor again later, and you don't want them to have bad memories of dealing with you. They do, after all, have complete control over how your work will eventually appear to everyone else at h2g2.

How long the editing phase takes is partly up to you. If you have done everything you could to make the Sub-Editor's job easier, your entry will be edited and featured that much sooner. If you sent in your work when it still contained its fair share of smudge marks, don't be surprised if the Sub-Editor takes their time making everything just so.

Please note that I can only describe how this phase works for entries submitted to the old Queue. Entries that were submitted to the Peer Review process have not made it to this stage yet. The Sub-Editors are committed to cleaning out the old Queue before moving on to the Peer Review submissions. By the time they have cleaned out the old Queue, it is possible that they will have changed something in this process. If I find out about an upcoming change, I'll be sure to let you know.

Finally, The Decision Is Made To Feature Your Entry

At some point, the Sub-Editor will decide they have done everything they can to clean and polish your entry. At this point, it is just a matter of getting that entry to everyone's attention. But it could still be days or weeks before the entry is featured on h2g2's main page.

Why is this? Chances are that other Sub-Editors have finished editing other entries like yours at about the same time. Therefore, there are are probably a good number of entries that are ready to be featured besides yours.

At any given day, the staffers at h2g2 Towers with the ultimate control will pick five (5) from among these ready entries for the main page. They may choose to run with a particular theme for the day. If one entry makes more sense in light of another, they may want to feature them both on the same day. Or they might try to balance the entries, so they cover the widest possible range of subjects. That way, chances are good that most everyone will find one of the choices interesting enough to read.

Because of the purely aesthetic decision-making that goes on, it is impossible to say when exactly your entry will be featured. If you submitted your entry to the old Queue, you will get an approval email the day your entry is featured. I don't know whether this will continue when we switch completely to the new Peer Review process.

All of a Sudden, Everyone's Looking

If your entry has made it to h2g2's main page, it has successfully navigated through the editing process. Congratulations! By this time, you might be very glad that your anxious wait is over. But just when you thought you could relax, it's time to jump back into action - temporarily.

Your entry will likely never get more attention than it will the day it is featured on h2g2's main page. Everyone at h2g2 has just been notified of its existence in a very public way, and the implied endorsement of your entry won't hurt it one little bit either. The end result is that your entry will be scrutinized from points of view you might never have imagined possible.

I recommend visiting your approved entry at least once the day it is featured, and again the day afterwards. Researchers may have additional questions for you. Or they may actually argue against something you have written, in which case you might want to go into more detail about where you got your information.

Someone may even add their own personal perspective on your topic, and you never know whether this will be an additional factoid or a surprisingly emotional story. This is part of what makes h2g2 so wonderful. Now that you have laid down the official groundwork on your topic, you can sit back and watch what happens when everyone at h2g2 has a chance to discuss it further.

You will also notice a change on your personal space regarding the entry. The Sub-Editor's copy of your original has now become the Official/Edited entry on your topic for the Guide. Therefore, it will appear in the "My Most Recent Edited Guide Entries" section of your personal space. If your original version disappeared a while ago, it will now be returned to the the "My Most Recent Guide Entries" section. The h2g2 Search Engine will pull up both entries now, though the Edited version will come up first.

What To Do Afterwards

If you feel your entry needs to be updated based on the feedback it receives, there are a couple of things you can do. For minor factual corrections, plus spelling and grammar corrections, you can post a thread under your entry with a title like "Note to Editor: A Correction." If this is done the day the entry is approved, the correction will likely occur fairly quickly.

If you feel a major overhaul or addition is called for, you should go back to your original version of the entry and edit it from there. Don't forget to include whatever corrections the Sub-Editor made to your previous content. When you are finished, you can resubmit the entry to the Peer Review process. Just include a note in your post that you are updating your entry. Ideally, you should briefly explain what you changed or added and why.

Some people also keep a running list of the Edited entries they were primarily responsible for. This is especially useful for writers who also contribute regularly to collaborative entries where their input may be a tiny fraction of the whole. Feel free to put an additional link on your personal space to your Edited Entry. You can even include a link to the original so people can see the changes the Sub-Editor made. Of course, you should make it clear which one is which if you do this. And please don't disparage the Sub-Editor, okay?

I will be on vacation until Wednesday, October 11th. This means the View From the Queue will not appear in next week's Post. The following week, I will average both week's statistics in my report.

Rather than detail what else I'll be writing about two weeks from now, I'd rather ask you what you'd like to see. Are there issues related to writing entries or to h2g2's processes for approving and editing them that you'd like to know more about? What would you like to see in this column next? Please drop your suggestions in the forum below. I'll take a look at your them when I come back from my vacation.

If the View two weeks from now is composed of a hodge podge of subjects, don't be surprised!

Fragilis the Melodical

Click here to see previous weeks' Views from the Queue.

Opinions expressed in this column are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of h2g2 or the Post.

02.10.00. Front Page

Back Issue Page