The Guru Report (in progress)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
A644780 | The Guru Report (in progress) | A645059 | A643970 | A655616 | A652466
Introduction
The purpose of this article
In this article we intend to deal with the subject of h2g2's hard-working volunteer Gurus. We will also look at the support that they get, and how their work is developing over time.
Who's this 'we' that you refer to?
Whoami? is an Ace, Sub-Editor, Guru and Scout who has been around in his current form since a month or two after the BBC takeover. He has been an Ace for a while, and likes to think that he's good at it. Originally from Warwickshire is a student in Oxfordshire, England. His favourite smiley is
Mina - Muse of Bondage is a Guru and an Ace. She plays an active role in the h2g2 community in general, as well as regularly posting to the Aceforum. Mina has also been involved with several University Projects, including 'Paris' and 'Wildlife Gardening'. She is an advocate of the Classic Goo skin, and has been around long enough to have a 5-digit user ID number.
An insider's view
What the job entails
Aces do two distinct jobs on h2g2:
- Welcoming new users as they sign up to h2g2, and helping them find their feet over the first few days.
- helping to calm down heated converations, pouring buckets of virtual water over flamers, and untangling conversational knots - particularly with emotive issues such as terrorism.
How much work is required
The usual thing is for Aces to welcome newbies as they meet them, and to calm situation as they arise. The whole system is backed up by a New Users' list on h2g2, and a lively invitation-only Yahoo!Group that allows Ace action to be distributed as required, as well as brightening up everyone's inbox through the day. The only real requirement for an Ace is to be a frequent, experienced user, who is generally nice, warm, friendly and welcoming. Above all, however, enthusiasm is very important. There's no policing to make sure that an Ace is doing their job - the onus is on the Ace to do it.
Most tasks on h2g2 are fairly steady as far as time requirements go, but the Aces are called upon much more at times of crisis, and their workload can vary enormously. Particularly busy forums often end up requiring a little helping hand, especially on topical issues.
Why do it?
Aceing is a great way to meet people, and a nice thing to do. It's an excellent step-up into the world of volunteering, and gets you established and respected on h2g2. It has the advantage that you get kept up to date with what's happening onsite and at the Towers, and you get to voice your opinion on matters such as new features, when they're up for debate. Did we mention that it's good fun as well?
Problems
One of the biggest problems faced by the Ace is how to go about welcoming people. Many simply use the main New User's page, which is automatically updated and reliable, but not a perfect catch-all method. Others prefer to rely on a manually updated Welcome Mat, which results from trawling the vast depths of the New Users' list backwards through the ages, and picking up on unwelcomed souls.
Being Aced: A Case Study
Method
First, we set up a new account, with the name dodgem™, and an intro pretty standard from what we've come to recognise as a first attempt. Had the italics wanted to find out what was going on, there were several ways that they could have done it. Whoami?'s logoff time always coincided with dodgem™'s login time. The IP addresses were the same. dodgem™ signed up with an email address not far dissimilar to that of Whoami?. Oh, and I checked with Peta that it was OK, so she knew.
What happened next
Problems
The Bit in the Middle
Authors and Subs together
Do you consider it important that a Sub contacts the original authors of an Entry? Are you an author or a Sub with a tale to tell? You can do so here, with the forum below! We would love to hear from you, especially if you have something to add to this Entry.
Misunderstandings
Survey
By means of a poll, involving around one-third of Sub-editors at the time, it was discovered that almost half claimed always to contact the authors of their Entries. About a quarter said that they sometimes did. One-sixth claimed that they only contacted the authors on occasion, while the same amount only talked to their authors if there was a problem. However, no-one admitted to never contacting anyone.
