Archive-name: galactic-guide/faq URL: Posting-frequency: fortnightly Last-modified: 1999-02-21 Maintainer: Version: 3.2.0 _____ _____ _____ . | . ______ ___ ____ | __ \ / ____|/ ____| \ | / | ____/ _ \ / __ \ | |__) | | __| | __ \|/ | |__ | |_| | | | | -| ___/| |-|_ | |-|_ |---*---| __|| _ | |--| |- | | | |__| | |__| | /|\ | | | | | | |__| | |_| \_____|\_____| / | \ |_| |_| |_|\___\_\ Project Galactic Guide Frequently Asked Questions The latest version of this FAQ is available on the Mothership, from the home site of the Project at , and from the maintainer's location at (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 , or . ------------------------------ Subject: 0. Contents 1. Basic ontological stuff 1.0. What is this Project Galactic Guide thing? 1.1. What should I expect to find in this Galactic Guide of yours? 1.2. How does your project relate to Douglas Adams' HHGTTG? 1.3. What is PGG's policy regarding copyrights? 1.4. How did it all begin? 1.5. What is The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything? 2. Getting to the cool stuff 2.0. How can I get your electronic book? 2.1. Where can I read your Guide on the Web? 2.2. Where can I download a browser for my platform? 2.3. How can I get PGG by e-mail? 2.4. What BBSes carry your Project? 2.5. How can I get PGG by snail mail? 2.6. How can I update my articles archive? 2.7. What is the PGG article mailing list? 2.8. Are there any PGG anthologies? 2.9. Do you have such things as paraphernalia? 2.10. What else is out there on the Net? 2.11. How can I go to the Mothership and not get lost? 3. Making the stuff 3.0. How does the Project work? 3.1. Who writes for the Guide? 3.2. Who or what is _The Executive_, exactly? 3.3. What about the editors? 3.4. What's the Review committee? 3.5. How can I sass, know more, enquire about the PGG froods? 3.6. To whom should I address my e-mail? 4. Having the right stuff 4.0. How can I write for the Guide? 4.1. How can I become an editor? 4.2. What else can I do? 4.3. Do you offer any help or documentation on things? 5. Useless knowledge and other stuff 5.0. What does DNA think about your project? 5.1. Are you alone in this world to do that sort of thing? 5.2. What else do you have to tell me? =========================================================================== 1. Basic ontological stuff ------------------------------ Subject: 1.0. What is this Project Galactic Guide thing? Project 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' (see Q1.5) fictional Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (HHGTTG) -- only for real. ------------------------------ Subject: 1.1. What should I expect to find in this Galactic Guide of yours? 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 1.2. How does your project relate to Douglas Adams' HHGTTG? 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 1.3. What is PGG's policy regarding copyrights? 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 1.4. How did it all begin? 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 (), 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 1.5. What is The Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything? 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 () about Douglas Adams on the site of the official HHGTTG fan club. (). The man also dedicated a whole website () on the subject of himself where you can find all sorts of informations about his works and whereabouts. =========================================================================== 2. Getting to the cool stuff ------------------------------ Subject: 2.0. How can I get your electronic book? There are many ways: a) you can read it online on the Web (see Q2.1); b) you can subscribe to the PGG article mailing list (see Q2.7); c) you can print out one of the regular PGG Crap Books (see Q2.8), for bringing the project with you in your most intimate moments; d) you can download it from the Net (see Q2.2); e) you can download it by internet e-mail (see Q2.3), f) you can download it from a BBS (see Q2.4); or g) you can order it by mail (see Q2.5). ------------------------------ Subject: 2.1. Where can I read your Guide on the Web? 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: * Megadodo's articles archive () (this is the official site) * Nick Williams' archives () * Valter Cavecchia's archives () ------------------------------ Subject: 2.2. Where can I download a browser for my platform? Since we tend to beam up everything we do on the Mothership (see Q2.11), 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: * Acorn Archimedes' browser Location: "archimedes" Contact: (1) Alex McLintock () or (2) Mark Seaborn () * Amiga's Amiguide Location: "amiguide" * Atari ST's TAG! Location: "stguide" * Java Virtual Machine browser (coming soon!) Location: Contact: Alex McLintock () *Beta testers needed:* This PGG browser is written in portable Java and will work both on-line and off. Please contact the contact if you are interested in Beta testing. * Macintosh's MacGuide Location: "macGuide" Contact: Rickard Andersson () * Macintosh's MGG Location: "mgg", Contact: Will Schenk () * MS-DOS' The Guide! Location: "theguide" Contact: Steve Baker () *Bug notice:* Due to a yet uncorrected glitch, the program chokes with a Runtime Error when processing articles with long ASCII lines and drawings. Until Steve accommodates the faulty algorithm, you'd better stay away from the fantastic articles entitled "Lecture Games" (2R60) and "Mating Habits Of The McBain Initial" (2U62). We apologize for the inconvenience. * MS-Windows' WinPGG (versions 1.5 and 2.0a) Location: "windows" Contact: Aaron Rice () * Unix's TUG! Location: "tug" Contact: Dave Gymer () * X Windows' X guide Location: "Xguide" Contact: David Squire () *Note:* This stuff is the source code which needs to be compiled on a Unix system which has X, and, most importantly, the Motif widget libraries. In addition, you can find translators for converting PGG articles to the following hypertext formats: * AmigaGuide (binaries for the Amiga) Location: "amigaguide" * HELP files for Windows Location: "winhelp" Contact: David Kraics () * HTML -- pgg2html (written in ANSI C) Location: "pgg2html" * HTML -- PGG-O-Vision (suite of Perl scripts) Location: Contact: Mark Seaborn () See the PGG Directory at for an up-to-date list of article viewers and converters. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.3. How can I get PGG by e-mail? 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: * USA: * * * * Germany: * * * * France: * * Poland: * * UK: * Alternatively, you may register to our PGG article mailing list (see Q2.7) which will periodically send PGG articles to your mailbox. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.4. What BBSes carry your Project? There are a lot of BBS systems that carry Project Galactic Guide stuff. More than this FAQ file presently covers! Please advise us if you run or know of a BBS that carries PGG. We'll add it to the list! * Sea of Noise Massachusetts, USA +1 203 886 1441 ------------------------------ Subject: 2.5. How can I get PGG by snail mail? 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. * Sweden Henrik O A Barkman Mittringen 13 SE-833 35 Stroemsund SWEDEN E-mail: Fidonet: 2:205/454 * United Kingdom Alex McLintock 50A Warbeck Road, Shepherds Bush, London, W12 8NT E-mail: "UK people can contact me for a copy of the guide for DOS or a copy of the guide in HTML format. Simply send a formatted HD disk (no floppy!), return SAE, and a nice letter. The 'cost' for this service is that you write an article! I might be able to write CD-ROMs soon." * United States PGG Batch Mail Center, Midwest Division c/o Ryan Tucker 5055 NE 38th Ave Des Moines, Iowa 50317-8035 USA E-mail: "I can take anything HD, please supply return postage or your disk will be assimilated, and please try an FTP-Mail (see Q2.3) server first. :-)" ------------------------------ Subject: 2.6. How can I update my articles archive? 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 directory of the mothership (see Q2.11), you look for the files matching the following formats and download the ones you wish: * REAL (factual) articles Format: REAL*.NEW * SEMI-REAL (not entirely true) articles Format: SREAL*.NEW * REAL (fictional) articles Format: UREAL*.NEW 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: * "NEW.NEW" Contains all articles that were added to the archives during the last archive update. * "ARTICLE.NEW" * "FORMAT.NEW" Tell you a little something about the formatting of articles. * "CONTENTS.NEW" Lists the titles and subtitles of all entries since the last update. * "REVIEW.NEW" Discusses the review process. For a first time update, you can download a _whole bunch_ of PGG articles in ZIP format from the "archives" 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" directory of the mothership (see Q2.11). 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 () some time ago. Project Galactic Guide for Pilot (PGGP) cannot be downloaded from the Net for the moment being. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.7. What is the PGG article mailing list? 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 () 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 (). ------------------------------ Subject: 2.8. Are there any PGG anthologies? 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! () ------------------------------ Subject: 2.9. Do you have such things as paraphernalia? 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 () to reserve your t-shirt today. Further informations (including pictures!) are available on PGG's Official site (). 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") or the Betelgian Hitch-Hiker's Scrapbook page () for some nifty designs. Why bother with press cards? They may actually get you in some places, and besides they look cool. There's an article on what to do with your press card; check it out! () ------------------------------ Subject: 2.10. What else is out there on the Net? Besides the on-line Galactic Guide (see Q2.1), the PGG mailing list (see Q2.7) and the PGG Crap Books (see Q2.8), PGG also maintains the following Official Attractions: * Megadodo () This is the official Web site of Project Galactic Guide. It's where you can find all relevant information relative to the Project: from the latest on-line version of this FAQ () to the online article database (). * the Mothership (see Q2.11) () The Mothership is an Anonymous FTP site where you can download PGG info, articles, programs, t-shirt images, reports, and other great and not-so-great stuff. * alt.galactic-guide The purpose of this Usenet newsgroup is to allow uninterrupted communication between people involved in Project Galactic Guide and for those who just wish to peek in. All new and proposed articles and other announcements are sent to this newsgroup. In addition to these attractions, several individuals (see Q3.5) have taken the time to build (and sometimes maintain) a PGG site of their own. Other pointers of different nature (see Q5.2) can also be found at the end of this FAQ. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.11. How can I go to the Mothership and not get lost? You go there like you usually do when connecting to an FTP server. Be sure to use one of the following addresses: * in the USA: * in the UK: 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 (see Q2.1) on you computer and update your articles database (see Q2.6), you can will also find the following directories: * "cargo-bay" The "incoming" directory, with a cooler name. * "fan" Douglas Adams related material. * "future-work" Old stuff not to be bothered with. * "ideas" Free article ideas waiting looking for a field researcher. * "images" Information and illustrations for the PGG logo, press cards, t-shirt design, etc. * "newsgroup-archive" Archive of past PGG discussions. * "reports" Back issues of the now gone PGG Report newsletter. 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 stuff ------------------------------ Subject: 3.0. How does the Project work? It 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* (see Q3.2) 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 (see Q3.3), along with the help of the Review committee (see Q3.4), who work with the field researchers (see Q3.1) in order to make their material achieve the standards of the Guide. Once an article is accepted, the librarian 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 (see Q4.3). ------------------------------ Subject: 3.1. Who writes for the Guide? 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 (see Q4.0), please read on to the next section. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.2. Who or what is _The Executive_, exactly? *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: * Paul Clegg (), * Alex McLintock (), * Aaron Rice (), * John Murphy (), * Chris Tann (), * James Crook (), * Mark Seaborn (), * Steve Baker (), * Stephane Lussier () and * Rickard Anderson (). 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.3. What about the editors? 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: * John Murphy (), * Aaron Rice (), * Mark Seaborn (), * Matt Baier (), * Don Hills (), * Tony Blews (), * Gavin Schmitt (), * Daniel Noll () and * Rob Martingano (email unknown). You should never directly send your articles to an editor. Article submissions are to be sent to . 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 * Paul Clegg (), * Steve Baker (), * Alex McLintock (), * Greg Wait (), * Chris Tann (), * James Crook (), * Roel van der Meulen () who should be coming back regularly to his PGG activities in about a year. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.4. What's the Review committee? 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 (see Q4.2). ------------------------------ Subject: 3.5. How can I sass, know more, enquire about the PGG froods? Many field researchers have written entries about themselves in the Guide (see Q2.0). 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: * Paul Clegg's site (megadodo.com) () * Mark Seaborn's site (rich in content) ([http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/mseaborn/pgg/index.html]) * Stephane Lussier's site (PGG news and pointers) () * Alex McLintock's site (Acorn's browser, personal) () * Roel van der Meulen's site (informative, personal) () * Aaron Rice's site (WinPGG, personal) () * Valter Cavecchia's site (archives/Douglas Adams) () * Will Schenk's site (archives, mac reader) () * Nick Williams' site (archives) () * Matt Baier's site (personal) () You can also check out the list of Project Galactic Guide sites on its very own Yahoo! node (). ------------------------------ Subject: 3.6. To whom should I address my e-mail? The Megadodo server gives us the following forwarding addresses: * For subscribing to the PGG article mailing list (please read this (see Q2.7) before proceeding!) or discussing ways to promote Project Galactic Guide. Real address: (Mark Seaborn) * For submitting an article. This will relay the article to most able editor. Alternatively, you can use this Web page (). Real address: (Mark Seaborn) * For contacting the Review Co-ordinator, or joining the Review Committee. Real address: (Aaron Rice) * For joining the editing staff. Please read this (see Q4.1) before enrolling. Real address: (Aaron Rice) * For matters concerning the article archives. Real address: (James Crook) * (Steve Baker) For matters concerning the Mothership. * (Paul Clegg) For matters related to the official Web page. Can somebody please encourage him and advertise _there_? Real address: can't be reached at the moment. * For suggesting any changes to the FAQs. Real address: (Mark Seaborn) or (Stephane Lussier) * For spamming *The Executive*'s mailing list. =========================================================================== 4. Having the right stuff ------------------------------ Subject: 4.0. How can I write for the Guide? Nothing 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: 1) Write about something, anything. Yes, no matter how bizarre or crazy, please write about it. Really. Anything. Anything except regurgitating Douglas Adams' material. Not only is this very unoriginal, it's also known as plagiarism. 2) Read it to yourself, and maybe to others. Try to make it work where you feel it doesn't, pass it through a spelling software (if you can), polish it up a bit, and put it in a nice text-only file. 3) Submit your text file at and wait for feedback. Write another article in the meantime (see #1). You are also very much encouraged to perfect your field researching abilities by reading the what our library (see Q4.3) has to offer on the subject. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.1. How can I become an editor? 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 () 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. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.2. What else can I do? 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 (), 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 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! ------------------------------ Subject: 4.3. Do you offer any help or documentation on things? 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: * Concise Article Style Guide For Field Researchers And Guide Editors () * A Guide To The Article Reviews Procedure () * General information for writing Guide articles () * Article Writing Guide For Field Researchers And Guide Editors () * Towns Article Writing Guide For Field Researchers () 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 (see Q2.11) ("ideas") 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 stuff --------