From the editor's desktop

Pete Clifton, editor of the BBC News website, looks for a (hopefully temporary) replacement, gets a news update from a robot, and - historically and controversially - tries to remember something he read 10 minutes ago. And one e-mail response goes a bit too far...

Click here to read a selection of your comments

SITUATION VACANT

I'm taking a fortnight off after next week, which is bad news for Steve Jenkins if no-one else (more later).

It's also potentially a bit of a blow for this column, but rather than dump it I thought I'd deploy the most obvious solution - get one of you to do it.

Regular readers will know it doesn't take much. Observe a few things that have happened in the news over the past week, highlight some interesting links on this site or elsewhere, try and crack a couple of weak gags and, er, that's it.

Fancy the chance? Send in a maximum of 300 words to show what you'd have penned about the past week in the news. I'll pick just one person to do the column for 15 and 22 July, so you'll have to be around at that time. And the second week, we'll send on to you some of the e-mails the first column receives - no doubt the usual mixture of hate, adoration and madness - for you to respond to.

The winner will be revealed in my demob happy column on 8 July.

THINK OF A WORD

It's probably another thing I shouldn't be laughing at because it's playing fast and loose with our content, but have any of you tried prognosticate.com?

Take a look, click on the BBC icon on the left-hand side, select a story, and then try to guess the missing words as the story unfolds before your eyes. Hours of happy fun. I've just got two out of 20 on an Afghanistan report, and I'd read it only a few minutes before. Definitely need the holiday.

FRESH STUDY SLAMS BBC

A bumper response after Craig Davidson from Vancouver, Canada, suggested "fresh" was being over-used in our headlines. No-one suggested any alternatives to fresh (sorry Craig), but numerous responses have paved the way for this ground-breaking new/fresh chart of alarming search results.

OVER-USED WORD TOP 12
Backs	6,002 results
Action	4,419
Boost	2,512
Blasts	1,792
Controversial	1,774
Survey says	1,600
Historic	1,463
Shock	1,248
On the ground	1,113
According to a new study	1,036
Chaos	995
Controversy	782

But we're ready for anything that you can come up with to top the chart...

EXTERMINATE

A year ago we'd have thought podcasting was something for the allotment, and now it's in full bloom.

The BBC has been commendably quick to engage with a range of content available. They've been fantastically well-received, and lo and behold a BBC-related product was number one in the "top podcasts" listed on iTunes this week.

So which top drawer piece of audio was it? From Our Own Correspondent, In Business, the 0810 Today interview? Unfortunately not. Step forward the Dalek, for all those who think star newsreaders are overpaid and easily replaced (Could you read the news?).

It's one of the quirkier products of the BBC's new Backstage project, where people with enormous brains, mad haircuts and pale complexions do extraordinary, innovative and often frightening things with our content. Perhaps one of you could automate this column?

PICTURE THIS

There was a fair amount of ridicule when our brand spanking new 360 degree camera made its debut by showing an unspectacular shot of our newsroom a few weeks ago. I promised then we would put it to better use, and I thought this HMS Victory tour was a great opening effort to support our in-depth coverage of Trafalgar 200. It picked up 100,000 views on Tuesday.

Plenty more to come. Any other examples of 360 photography you recommend, or anywhere else you'd like us to take our shiny bit of kit?

Talking of pictures, these remarkable photos were sent to us by members of the public and picked up more than 2m page impressions in a day. Amateur photographers were out in force as the heavens opened, with our colleagues in Southampton doing a great job putting them together.

YOUR CALL

It's appraisal season at the BBC. Everybody gets one, dutifully rolling up to their "line manager" to talk about the year past and the one ahead. And in a very BBC turn of events, it is the person being appraised who writes the report on how well they have done over the previous year: eg - "Another blinding year" - P Clifton, June 2005. The line manager waters it down: eg - "P Clifton rarely at desk" - and we all carry on.

We also set objectives for the department as a whole for the coming year, so I wondered if you would like to suggest one that I can pass on to all the website staff?

LEARN THIS

Amid much eager anticipation, the BBC's new editorial guidelines were published this week. A copy is on its way to all of us here at the coalface to read, learn and recite on demand. Some of it made headlines, plenty didn't.

Brown-nosing aside, it's the definitive guide to what the BBC stands for and how it should go about its business - and if you didn't know, you can see the whole thing here.

YOU WERE ALSO SAYING...

Huge response to the merits or otherwise of wikis following the consternation about the LA Times "wikitorial" getting vandalised by those who should channel their skills into something more creative - maybe by going Backstage .

I suggested our site might try some wiki approaches one day. About 70% of you were against.

Ernest Adams, from Guildford, UK, wrote: "Do not report your opinions; do not report the opinions of the unwashed. The BBC is the best source of news in the world. Please keep it that way." And Matt Cooper, of Moraga, US, added: "I couldn't think of anything worse than random people posting their assumptions as credible news. Such an event would be the end of civilisation."

Well, don't despair, the end isn't nigh. I'm all for people commenting on the news we produce, and helping us make it better - sending eye witness accounts, pictures, video. But they won't be joining together and writing it all for us, much as I favour the long lunch approach to life.

As mentioned before, there are some things we could hand over to you to write - the example I've mentioned was perhaps getting readers to write profiles of local constituencies before the next General Election. That kind of thing.

So, fear not, we'll be keeping a firm hand on the news tiller. If you want everybody writing it, you can always dip into wikinews. I'm impressed by the amazing power of wikipedia, but as a fully fledged old buffer I feel distinctly more uneasy with the same approach to news.

I went head-to-head with Raymond Clements from Northern Ireland last week, who asked if anyone would vote that the BBC had improved the quality of its news over the past five years.

Happy to reveal that 1,977 votes had come in the last time I checked, with 52.05% saying the quality had improved, 22.91% saying it was unchanged, 22.21% saying it had got worse, and 2.83% left cold by our efforts. We should work hard at the 22.21%, but, sorry Raymond, we won this one.

And slightly chuffed that many of the accompanying e-mails were like the one from Chris Doughty in Canada, formerly of Cardiff: "In response to whether the BBC's news coverage has improved in the past five years or not, you only have to look at this website. I never watch news on the TV any more, I much prefer reading exactly what I want to read rather than being force-fed. As long as the site continues to go from strength to strength (and it does), then the news coverage will continue to improve."

Alan Simpson, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, asked gently: "A piffling complaint, but why can't the blue link-text be the same size as the rest of the text? When used in the middle of a sentence to provide a link, it jars on the eye as a result.

I've asked the technical team, and they say it can be fixed. They ask for four weeks (!) to sort it out, even if you or I could probably do it in a truncated lunchtime. Anyhow, if it's not done, I'll publish the e-mail address of the person who gave me the assurance, and you can all write to him.

And finally, Steve Jenkins from London, UK, had a look at the Newswatch interview mentioned in last week's column. I was hoping the interview (with me) would throw a bit more light on why this site has made the move to discuss more openly the editorial decisions we make, the things we do well, the things we should work harder at, the things that make us proud. That kind of accountability and openness is the thing we are trying to crack.

Steve quickly latched onto this and wrote: "Just watched the Newswatch interview with you. The photo doesn't do justice! Hot stuff. I nominate you as the next gay icon on behalf of the gay community!"

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