Sunday, April 30, 2006

The Shortest Story on the BBC Archives?

I was browsing through some of the many stories in the archives and it set me wondering which had been the shortest/longest articles posted.

My award for the shortest goes to the following article that was posted back in October 2004.


World War Two by vanhan

Contributed by vanhan
People in story: Jordan,Aaron and Adam
Location of story: Yorkshire
Background to story: Royal Air Force
Article ID: A3105451
Contributed on: 08 October 2004

It was

I see that I added a comment at the time.

Message 1 - World War Two

Posted on: 13 October 2004 by Ron Goldstein
"it was"?

I'm sure you're right

7 Comments:

Blogger Peter G said...

Ron

As the Editor of the Team's WW2 Blog I do hope that you are not getting me into trouble. I checked the story here and noted that it states prominently under it that

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author.

Since you have given the entire story verbatim, I trust you contacted the author for permission before posting it in full?

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger Tomcann said...

Peter -


I always felt that what the chap failed to say in his posting was - "It was" a well known fact that the Royal Air Force were located in Yorkshire.

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger Peter G said...

"It was a bit of a do."

Any further offers?

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger Ron Goldstein said...

Gents

It was only afterwards that I realised he might have intended to post the articles in installments.
For instance, after:

It was

He might have intended to post Article 2:

Xmas Day

Closely followed by Article 3:

In the Workhouse

Had the site not closed down in order to become an archive, he might very well have qualified for the longest article on the site !

just a thought :)

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger ritsonvaljos said...

I've had a look at the story on the "People's War" website. it was the only story this person contributed, unless they changed their Username.

The writer must have been attempting to write a much longer story. It has then 'gone wrong' somehow and it has never been re-edited.

It's a pity the person attempting to make a contribution could not have been contacted at the time by someone from the website. They must have registered an e-mail address as a site user.

Curiously, I see the story has been placed in the 'Kent' category. How does a 2-word story that says it is about the RAF in Yorkshire end up in the category about Kent? If the story has been placed in the 'Kent' category by a computer using Bayes Theorem, is it an indication the writer is from Kent?

Can I say:
'It was' ... a long way from Yorkshire to Kent during WW2. And it still is!

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger Peter G said...

Thank you Ritson for taking this matter seriously. I am banning Goldstein from further Postings and Comments for seven minutes for excess frivolity.

Sunday, 30 April, 2006  
Blogger ritsonvaljos said...

Hi again guys,

There was one contributed story posted I remembered I had read was very short (9 words). I've just looked it up again: Article ID: A4591280. It was entitled "Propaganda Leaflet" and was contributed by 'csvdevon'.

The photograph shows a propoganda leaflet dropped behind the Allied lines by the Germans. This must have been one of the shortest 'proper' contributions to the "People's War" site, don't you think?

Personally, if I had been brought this leaflet to post on to the site, I would have transcribed what it says into the story text. This would have made it easier to read, because people who have difficulty reading small print might have a problem reading the text off the photograph. everyione sure it could be read by everyone.

By a strange quirk of fate I found something strange when I looked the story up again. Perhaps it may interst some others in this Forum?

The two categories the "Propoganda Leaflet" story has been placed into for the Archive are:
1. 'Resistance and Occupation'
and
2. 'Propoganda'

Question:

Does anybody know who the two young fellows are that are shown as the lead photographs for these categories?

Answers:

1. The 'Resistance and Occupation' category photo is of a young lad called Peter. I feel you should know him from somewhere .....
(Peter G!)

2. The 'Propoganda' photograph is of a young fellow called John from Cumbria .....
(One of my kinfolk!)

Am I allowed this one extra, if slightly frivolous posting, Peter?

Monday, 01 May, 2006  

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