We're deeply pleased to be able to say this at last:

The Board of Not Panicking Ltd and the Volunteer Team welcome you to the new h2g2!

The vast archives of the Guide are now safely transferred. We're looking forward to an exciting and secure future under the care of a collaboration between Robbie Stamp, Aly and Brian Larholm, and the h2g2 Community Consortium. Robbie Stamp was a friend of Douglas Adams and one of the founders of h2g2 in 1999. The Larholms have over 10 years' experience of running social media sites. The h2g2 Community Consortium is a group of Researchers who have been working with Robbie, Brian and Aly to ensure that h2g2 has a bright future and that every Researcher has a say in the running of h2g2.

Although it looks and feels like the h2g2 we all know and love, you'll notice a few changes over the next few days, weeks and months. NPL has entrusted our new teams of volunteers with the day-to-day running of h2g2. We are delighted to introduce our new volunteer Guide Editors - Dmitri, Gnomon, Icy North and Lanzababy. Our moderators are also volunteers, acting on a mandate from the NPL Board to help keep h2g2 running smoothly.

All of our volunteers have been working hard to prepare for their new roles, but nothing's quite the same as going live. There's bound to be a bit of learning for everyone, so we ask for your patience over the next few days.

We've done all we can to test h2g2 in its new home. If you do find anything that isn't working as you expect, please tell us about it in New h2g2 Feedback. We would also welcome creative thoughts about what we might do next.

Our medium-term goal is to launch the Hitchhiker's Guide App and to finally bring Douglas Adams's original vision to life. One of the big changes will be the return of advertising to the site in the coming weeks. There was advertising when the site first launched, and advertising and sponsorship will be important sources of revenue for us as we grow the h2g2 experience.

One of the biggest questions that we are asked relates to the 'look and feel' of the site. The intention here is to be able to provide all the 'historic' skins that Researchers are so fond of but to choose one simple and easy-to-read skin as a default. We want to make the site, in the future, very easy to customise and indeed would like to open up the design of skins to the creative talents of the Community, so that we can enjoy a wide variety of choice.

Thank you, and once again - Welcome.

The Team at h2g2