h2g2 changes skin!
Created | Updated Aug 19, 2009
So... What about the New-Look h2g2 then?
Look Mommy, it's all gone Pastel!
It has hasn't it? On Wednesday, h2g2 went down for a couple of hours but,
unlike other occasions, this time it was deliberate. h2g2 underwent a
metamorphasis so to speak. And from the cocoon came forth a new 'skin',
Alabaster.
Some people love it. Some people hate it. Some people call it Alabastard.
But love it or hate it, what are the actual differences?
We've gone through it trying to see, just for you what actually has changed,
then we've commented on it.
The first and most obvious thing is the lack of Goo. This has been replaced
by a simple coloured banner across the top of the screen hosting a few useful
links and the advertising, while a smaller banner at the bottom of the page
hosts just the links. The links have changed as well. 'Ask h2g2' has made it
off the front page into the menu bar. 'Add a Guide Entry' has migrated to
'Tell h2g2' and is also up there, right next to the 'Who's Online' button,
which has made a welcome addition to the menu. Another new button up there
is a direct link to the Douglas Adams shop. Hey, they've got to make their
money somewhere.
Up with the search box are four new links. 'Life', 'The Universe' and 'Everything'
have moved in from the box on the front page and been joined by a link to the
'Power Search' page, which you originally got to by executing a blank search.
These make the Guide far more searchable and open up the content more.
A second advertisment box is now up there, currently this is being used to
show a cute animation of a rather bizarre hitchhiking bird with a very
unusual grasp of WAP technology. I don't know if this is to be used in the
future to gain additional advertising revenue, we'll have to see.
Onto the 'Homepages' and the layout has changed as well. Firstly the background
is now white rather than dark blue. So all those pictures that went well on
the dark blue background now look quite silly. 'The Most Recent Forum Entries'
list has moved across to the top left of the screen, allowing you to quickly
see which forums you've been talking in that have been updated. Underneath that
on the left is a list of 'Guide Entries' with the 'Approved Guide Entries' under
that. The main bulk of the page under the banner is given over to our own
introductions to ourselves. With the 'Discuss This Entry' links directly beneath.
Pretty much the same as the old style. Another major change, though, is that
more space is given over to our 'Journal Entries', so the least we can do is
write more in them.
The article pages are cleaner as well. With no 'goo' on the left hand side, the
articles themselves seem to be better laid out and easier to read. This, I
think is a major improvement. Also all the footnotes are hyperlinked, so we now
just have to click on the link number to take us down to the footnote, and
click on the corresponding one to take us back.
The main changes that we may notice though are in the fora. Firstly, we notice
that not all the posts in a forum are displayed. Allalujah!! This should
stop those loooooooooooooooong forums crashing computers. Now you get the
first twenty posts, with a link at the top to see newer posts. Once further
into a forum, you also get a link to see the older posts. It might be an idea to
have a link at the begining to take you straight to the latest posts though,
and save all that tedious mucking about in hyper(link)space. Another new
addition for the fora is that of a new Smiley, the
smiley, although they did forget to tell us how to make it! But for
those of us who haven't figured it out yet (I had to ask someone) it's by
typing :-P in.
There are other visual changes I'm sure, so please let us know what I've
missed out.
