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The PGG FAQFrequently Asked Questions about Project Galactic Guide Version 3.2.0 - 1999/02/21 The latest version of this FAQ is available on the Mothership (US/UK), from the home site of the Project at http://megadodo.com/, and from the maintainer's location at http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/faq/ (which is most likely to carry the latest version). This document has been written in part by: Stephane Lussier, Roel van der Meulen, Mark Seaborn, Aaron Rice, Paul Clegg, Alex McLintock and Greg Wait. Please don't hold this against them. The effects of long-term exposure to the PGGFAQMKIII are not known. User assumes all risks. The PGGFAQMKIII has no warranties, expressed or implied. You have been warned. For submitting any change to the FAQ, please write to faq@megadodo.com, mseaborn@argonet.co.uk or slussier@bigfoot.com. Contents1. Basic ontological stuff
2. Getting to the cool stuff
3. Making the stuff
4. Having the right stuff
5. Useless knowledge and other stuff
1. Basic ontological stuffProject Galactic Guide (PGG) is a collaborative Internet attempt at creating an electronic reference meant to guide and misguide its readers in matters of life, death, and finding a parking space anywhere in the Universe. Ever since 1991, editors, field researchers and other contributors alike have been involved in building a database of articles ranging on all matters in and out of this world. They have built browsers, Web sites and written articles, all in order to create something as fun, helpful and brilliant as Douglas Adams' fictional Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG) -- only for real. Almost anything, really. Our Galactic Guide is a casual encyclopedia made to educate its readers with an eclectic selection of more or less reliable knowledge and fabrication. It's an friendly resource reporting on life, art, travel, science, sex (but not that much), improbable metaphysics and everything else. It's creative journalism done with a sense of humour. Without pretending to anything, it's the perfect ground for adamian field researching, borgian invention, swiftian satire, and all that is about sharing more or less personal views about common things that may seem alien to others. The contents of the Guide can range from the more practical to the more useless, from the very factual to the very fantasist. In order not to confuse too much our readers with impossible things, we have categorized our articles in three different degrees of realism separating the possibly REAL content from the UNREAL one and throwing the rest in with the SEMI-REAL material. Moderation of our articles relies on our editors' hopefully good taste and sense of the Guide rather than on any strictly defined voice or vision we try to replicate. In fact, we have a very loose definition of what the guide is and uniformity isn't part of it. Although Douglas Adams' hitch-hiker's guides were our primary source of inspiration, many feel, from both a creative and legal standpoint, that we should aim to get away from DNA pastiche and try to discover who we really are. For this reason, we must reject anything that too closely mimics his material. Like any civilized bunch of apes, we are contented by ripping off the idea of the thing over the thing itself. Occasional resemblance to DNA material can only be due to a condition of the heart and sometimes excessive fandom -- not of marketing. Even though this heart condition is not absolutely to be maintained, we enjoy the freedom as a labour of fun of having the right to be inspired by the works of those who came before us, even if they are not quite dead yet. Since we value originality and respect the work of those that can be credited for putting their time and efforts in other projects, we find we must reject all identified form of uncreative plagiarism. Our writers cannot use the material of others in any way without their authorization. The only things we might allow are the use of terms, concepts and references from other works as long as they are put to the needs of another context and not used to replicate someone else's work. These people shall also be given credit to whenever they are quoted. As for the legal status of our material, here is what we like to call The Official Copyright Stance For Project Galactic Guide: By submission of an article to Project Galactic Guide, the author agrees to release the right to reproduce and distribute their article to Project Galactic Guide. The author retains all other intellectual property rights as according to the international copyright laws. Project Galactic Guide further reserves the right to cease distribution and reproduction of the article in the future, at which point all rights revert back to the author. Note that this little disclaimer wasn't written by a court-appointed attorney, a hotshot copyright lawyer, or anyone with more credentials than a guy who's read the little disclaimer inside the covers of a few novels, who's watched a few "People's Court" episodes, and who just about passes for acceptable in a grey wig. The year was nineteen ninety one. Amongst the few millions of people there where on the Net at the time, a small group of Douglas Adams enthusiasts where hanging around the alt.fan.douglas-adams newsgroup and wasting time on useless issues. Their main subject of conversation was the Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy trilogy, a five parts story featuring a sort of electronic book, a galactic guide. Since everyone had computers and programming skills were commonplace, all it took to make the thing real was some guy asking: "Hey, why don't we build a real guide?" This guy is Paul Jason Clegg (cleggp@megadodo.com), but his story isn't very interesting. His idea was that of a guide about real things in the real world, an Hitch-Hiker Guide To The Known Galaxy. Because of this, his vision didn't last long unshaken. Reality was found to be too much of a constraint for many and we decided to include everything else, keeping reality only as an option. If you'd like to speculate about the unfathomable depth of the number forty-two or are interested in debating which one of the Lintilla clones was the sexiest, then you maybe looking for the alt.fan.douglas-adams newsgroup. You can find a FAQ (http://www.atomiser.demon.co.uk/mh/faq/) about Douglas Adams on the site of the official HHGTTG fan club. (http://www.atomiser.demon.co.uk/mh/). The man also dedicated a whole website (http://douglasadams.com/) on the subject of himself where you can find all sorts of informations about his works and whereabouts. 2. Getting to the cool stuffThere are many ways:
The Project Galactic Guide archives are available for on-line viewing at more than one places. Some of the following sites contain a recently updated version of the Guide and full featured search engines:
Since we tend to beam up everything we do on the Mothership, you should be able to find there the latest versions of our browsers. Most of the locations given here are subdirectories on the Mothership FTP server:
In addition, you can find translators for converting PGG articles to the following hypertext formats:
See the PGG Directory at http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/dir.html for an up-to-date list of article viewers and converters. If you only have access to a mail account, there exists several FTP-Mail services enabling you to download the contents of a FTP site through Internet mail. For more information about this service, just send an e-mail containing the word "help" to any of those (untested) e-mail addresses:
Alternatively, you may register to our PGG article mailing list which will periodically send PGG articles to your mailbox. There are a lot of BBS systems that carry Project Galactic Guide stuff. More than this FAQ file presently covers! Please advise us faq@megadodo.com if you run or know of a BBS that carries PGG. We'll add it to the list!
Some people have volunteered to ship a copy of the Guide to desolate people with no computer connection. Although we expect them be reliable, their home address may not be by the time you read this FAQ. So, we advise you to make contact with them before sending your hardware by mail.
There currently is no automatic way to update the entries of the Guide through the Sub-Etha Net. There isn't even such a thing as a Sub-Etha Net! You will have to download the new entries by yourself and follow the instructions of your proper browser in order to update your database. Once you are in the (US/UK) directory of the mothership, you look for the files matching the following formats and download the ones you wish:
Some other special articles discuss matters relative to the Guide itself. Although they are not all updated often, you should check the date of last modification of the following files:
For a first time update, you can download a whole bunch of PGG articles in ZIP format from the archives ( US/UK) directory. The format of the filename, YYYYMMDD.ZIP, reflects the date the archive was last updated. A more recent venture of Project Galactic Guide was to include multimedia attachments to some of our articles. In order to view the GIFS and JPG files associated to some entries, you will have to download them from the attachments ( US/ UK) directory of the mothership. Their names are all derived from the number of the entry to which they belong. Ideas have been shared for simplifying the update process but they have yet to be implemented. Windows users may expect such a facility to be built in an upcoming version of WinPGG. An earlier version of the PGG database has also been adapted to the Palm Pilot DOC format by Don Hills (dmhills@ibm.net) some time ago. Project Galactic Guide for Pilot (PGGP) cannot be downloaded from the Net for the moment being. This list will e-mail random PGG articles to you at regular intervals. Since signing onto the list isn't automatic at the moment, you will have to send a e-mail to Mark Seaborn (mseaborn@bigfoot.com) in order to register to this service. You will also need to tell him what kind of articles you would like to receive (REAL, UNREAL or SEMI-REAL), and whether you want to receive them daily, weekly, or on certain days. For the most up-to-date informations concerning this service, you can check the Web page Mark put up to announce this service ( http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/maillist/index.html). Although the idea of one day publishing a guide in solid form came to the dreams of more than one field researcher, we currently have to go with the kind of do-it-yourself paper alternatives. But wait... Better than just pushing the PRINT button six times before breakfast, the PGG Crap Books can let you print six PGG articles with the push of only one button! You can take along with you, for your defecational pleasure, to sooth your mind while waiting for the dentist, or on those long train travels where the mind goes numb! You can then leave the read paper there and help bring the joy of PGG to the ignorant, I mean, to all those who don't know what they're missing! Get your PGG Crap Book every week! for there are one for every day and they are updated updated every Friday. Yeees, the Crap Book is a truly excellent piece of promotional material! ( http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/crapbooks/) Some thought it couldn't be done, but after many years of wait, it's finally possible... Yes, you can now order your very own PGG "Field Researcher" T-shirt! Interested in showing off your involvement into the project to people who don't care? Contact Paul Clegg now (cleggp@megadodo.com) to reserve your t-shirt today. Further informations (including pictures!) are available on PGG's Official site (http://megadodo.com/news/tshirtorder.html).
Several attempts at press cards have
been made over the years, but to this day none have
actually been sent out. You can check out the
Mothership (images (
US/UK))
or the Betelgian Hitch-Hiker's Scrapbook page (
http://members.xoom.com/betelgian/archives/designs.html)
for some nifty designs. Why bother with press
cards? Besides the on-line Galactic Guide, the PGG mailing list and the PGG Crap Books, PGG also maintains the following Official Attractions:
In addition to these attractions, several individuals have taken the time to build (and sometimes maintain) a PGG site of their own. Other pointers of different nature can also be found at the end of this FAQ. You go there like you usually do when connecting to an FTP server. Be sure to use one of the following addresses:
When you connect, use the anonymous user ID and specify your full Internet e-mail address as the password. Then cd to pub/galactic-guide (if you aren't already there) Along with what you need in order to put a Galactic Guide on you computer and update your articles database, you can will also find the following directories:
NOTE: When downloading files from the Mothership, be sure you are in BINARY mode. A lot of folks have been sending e-mail complaining of corrupt ZIP files, etc... it's because they are trying to get the binary file in ASCII mode (which is the default, unfortunately). 3. Making the stuffIt doesn't. We are a big catastrophic enterprise whose only purpose is to inflate the sum total of the interests it owes to its creditors. Our plans are to declare ourselves a project in crisis and then let everything be run by economic concerns in the hopes of one day regaining prosperity. Actually, we work for free. We have gathered a small group of people whose main purposes are outside of the Project (if they have any) and who decided to contribute to PGG on their own time, for better of for worse. They like to call themselves The Executive and hope one day to be referred to as Mister. With the help of those people, Project Galactic Guide continues to evolve, of course, but it mostly goes on. The biggest and most important part of the work is done by the editors, along with the help of the Review committee, who work with the field researchers in order to make their material achieve the standards of the Guide. Once an article is accepted, the librarian librarian@megadodo.com inserts the article in Guide archives where it is available for everyone to download. For more informations on the workings of PGG, please consult our field researching library. PGG used to be something for DNA fans and it still is in some ways, but anyone that can write something interesting and funny for our format is welcome to do so. In fact, some of PGG articles have been written by recruits that didn't even know about Douglas Adams. To become a field researcher, please read on to the next section. The Executive are a group of editors, ex-editors and other people closely involved in the daily businesses of PGG who felt the need to call themselves something in order to manage things. Some of them do actual editing, librarianing, programming, webmastering, and other real work, others just tend to give their input and dream about nifty features. The Executives who are currently very much involved into PGG are:
Many other people have made and continue to make various contributions to the PGG experience... but avoid this becoming one of those "Hi folks"-type things, we'll just leave it at that. The editors are those guys who control what goes in and stays out of the Guide. They can also be your friend when they manage to help you make your articles better. These busy persons might or might not be:
You should never directly send your articles to an editor. Article submissions are to be sent to submit@megadodo.com. This will insure that your submissions are well received by PGG and that they are redirected to the person(s) best suited for the job. If you are not quite sure about the quality of your material and you prefer to receive feedback before bothering the very busy and dedicated unpaid editors at PGG, you are welcomed to post your submissions on alt.galactic-guide for everyone to comment. Alternatively, you could do public readings of your writings at a bus station or at a restaurant and witness the reactions. The editors who are enjoying a well deserved lunch break are
The Review Committee is a group of people helping out the field researchers by contributing with their opinions and suggestions. It's like having its own crowd of "art" critics expressing their opinions on its articles before their archival, except they are more constructive and relaxed about their job -- that is, when they're in a caffeine-enduced frenzy, of course. We are always looking for new members. Many field researchers have written entries about themselves in the Guide. Apart from this and some of Roel's amusing descriptions of The Executive members in the old FAQ (currently not to be found anywhere), there isn't any white page database for PGG. But, as we say, the best way to get behind a demented mind is to go get a glimpse at its Web site. So here are the PGG Web sites of some of those involved with PGG:
You can also check out the list of Project Galactic Guide sites on its very own Yahoo! node ( link;http://www.yahoo.com/Computers 1em and 0em Internet/Internet/Searching 1em the 0em Net/Projects/Project 1em Galactic 0em Guide; ). The Megadodo server gives us the following forwarding addresses:
4. Having the right stuffNothing is more easy! The experts at PGG have devised for you an easy-to-follow three-steps approach to becoming a field researcher. Here it is:
You are also very much encouraged to perfect your field researching abilities by reading the what our library has to offer on the subject. Editing can be a very demanding responsibility. It's more than a part time hobby, it's an unpaid activity that will compete with those that can actually lead you somewhere in life. Editing can be a thankless job, a duty reserved only to those who can pass the Test of Time, the Test of Commitment and the Test of Skill. If you think you're up to position of editor, then you may contact personnel officer Aaron Rice (elemental@mcmail.com) and he'll fill you in all the details you need to know. As with any other editor, please use words that are easy to understand when conversing with him. As you may have guessed by the tone of this last paragraph, we are not in urgent need of editors for the time being. Our trainees and others will soon be granted full editing power and the PGG machine is about to roll at full vapor. Serious individual with dedication are most welcome to apply, even if they are not exactly needed. In the meantime, aspiring editors and others are always encouraged to play the part of field researcher and write nice articles for the Guide. Well... we always need a few devoted newsgroup readers to comment on PGG articles that are posted for review. For this, we have formed a Review Committee whose purpose is to read recently submitted articles through either alt.galactic-guide, e-mail or the review page ( http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/review/sessions.html), and then go on rambling with criticism. As a member, you will be expected to give regular constructive input on these articles before they get included in the project's archives. You can contact review@megadodo.com in order to join the committee or enquire further about it. You don't need to be a Commitee Member in order to comment a PGG article. In fact, all kind input is welcome on alt.galactic-guide. Finally, anything you can think about that will stir up Project Galactic Guide a little will always be welcome. Software, graphics, money... anything, really, is welcome! It cannot hurt to do some reading for improving its field researching abilities. For that, we've put the following files at your disposition in our library:
We also have a PGG Idea Bank, chock full of great ideas that beg for exploring. They're sometimes posted to the alt.galactic-guide newsgroup, and all are available on-line on the Mothership (ideas (US/UK)) When posting an original idea, be sure to include your name and e-mail address for proper credit down the road. Conversely, when using an idea from someone else, write the article, being sure to credit the idea's originator in the header information. 5. Useless knowledge and other stuffWe don't know for sure. Douglas Adams is a very busy person and we expect he'd rather read something else on his free time. In a recent communication with PGG, TDV Research Director Richard Harris (http://www.tdv.com/html/richard_h.html) informed us that they have "no problem at all with the t-shirts or with PGG" and that they might even be interested in making PGG a semi-official part of their future online guide. He also intimated that they might want to reclaim the "megadodo.com" domain name as part of their intellectual property. Until they do so, we invite you to send us your suggestions for a new domain name to host our project. Dave Hodges (realhhg@earthling.net) has been maintaining for many years something called "The REAL HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy" (http://websites.ntl.com/~sunshine/realhhg/). This Web site describes it as "a huge database of factual and fictional articles which appears at S-F/Fantasy conventions to raise money for charity and entertain people." This project has been authorized by Douglas Adams. Vogon Heavy Industries are publishing a nice looking hitch-hiker's guide (http://www.vogon.com/guide/) wrapped inside a cool java or javascript (your choice) interface. It contains excerpts from DNA material plus some short original articles. DNA's company, The Digital Village (http://www.tdv.com/), "is currently developing h2g2 (http://www.h2g2.com/), [their] headline multiple media brand, which uses the attitude and humour of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy to create multiple information and entertainment services." Life can be a fantastically diverse and confusing experience filled with all sort of wonderful and painful things to be written about. Get out more. Visit new locations. Meet strange different beings. Pick up a pen and a notebook and write for PGG. Come talk with us on alt.galactic-guide once in a while. Ordinary people from all around the globe are doing it since 1991. You can start doing it any day. |
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