One of the most asked questions between researchers is of the 'how did you get into h2g2?' variety. Were you there at the launch on Tomorrow's World, did you surf in through word of mouth, through the BBC website, see last year's repeats on BBC2...? Below, fellow researchers have kindly added their stories:

U55226 - Ooohhh.. that's a hard one. I recall running into TDV before the launch of Starship Titanic while looking for some info about what DNA was up to. They had some kind of a message bord in connection to Starship Titanic and I posted some stuff there. And thus I got a notice of them starting a Guide. When I surfed to that page it was full of animations and took ages to load (we're talking about a connection via the university's backbone at my end...). And the animations didn't tell me anything and I never grasped the concept of what was about to happen here. Maybe due to the fact that I couldn't be bothered to sit through all the loading time and then I came back a coupla months later and the silly anims had died down somewhat and I could suddenly figure what this was all about and so I joined...

U109000 - Well, it happened over two years ago, so I'm not sure if I'm remembering this right.

After getting hooked on the Hitchhikers trilogy of books, I decided to look on the web for any sites about the books or about DNA (I figured the books had to have some sort of online following, but I never thought I would find it in this great of form!)

Anyway, I think the first place I ran across in my browsing was The Digital Village (www.tdv.com). They mentioned h2g2, and so I checked out the site. I've been glad to have found it ever since!

U181477 - Well, I watched the first of the BBC reruns of the Hitchhikers' TV series in 2001 (we taped all of them). At the end of the programme, the URL to the BBC site about the series was given, so I got onto that. From there I linked to h2g2, and signed up at something like eleven o'clock at night. I must have been on until half-one or two, and for about a week straight after that .

So I guess my answer would be 'through the BBC website'.

U53353 - Online surfing for stuff about DNA; that pretty much sums it up for me. I was wandering around the local book store and ran across 'Last Chance to See' and bought it, read it and loved it.

Since I didn't know that this title existed, I thought there might be more 'undiscovered' DNA books out there and I did an online search and came across h2g2.

I haven't been able to get unstuck ever since...

U95721 - ...It's a pretty similar story for me. I really enjoyed the 'Hitch-hiker' books, and on October 1, 1999, I suddenly thought: 'Wonder what that Douglas Adams bloke has been up to lately?' So I did a search, found h2g2, took a good look at it, and loved the idea of being a Researcher for the Guide.

I still do!

U25843 - I got here by watching Tomorrow's world - the first day I had my computer and there was DNA yakking on and he mentioned this site so I just went and registered. I was really surprised to find that I won one of the 42 signed illustrated guides.

There were very few people hanging around then and it was impossible to find anything on the site - you just had to sort of stumble across people. One day I searched for the word "Pantomime" and found an article which called us actors mere players. I left a comment about how we were actors and 2 days later a researcher called "Doug" left a reply saying "Oh no you're not!" and the rest, as they say, is history. We clogged up lots of fora for 3 weeks and got lots of sarcastic comments especially from Peta. At the end of that time, and after numberous emails and telephone calls, we decided to meet up in Oxford for the day. We got on very well and started seeing each other regularly. Four months later, in September 1999, we got engaged in Florence and a year after that on 9/9/2000 we got married in Somerset.

I believe we were the first on-line h2g2 romance although I know there have been many, many since then!

U173458 - I discovered h2g2 during Rupert. So, obviously, I didn't join, but I saw a few people talking about it. My memory's a bit hazy here, but I think that there were attempts to keep it going? Some green thing with its toungue sticking out as the symbol?

Anyway - I forgot about it until I saw a link to here when browsing Need to Know. It was when I clicked on this link that I found out that DNA had died - which was a bit of a shock, to say the least. I signed up, and here I am. And aren't you all glad.

Well, aren't you?

U187629 - I am glad, I joined when my friend Strider joined. He told me about it and it sounded fun.

And here I am.

I am glad.

U107357 - I wrote about some of the answers to this very question in The Post after visiting the Tomorrows World show in July 2000 (A384220). I took the quotes from a thread similar to this, but it seems to be lost in the backlog.

My own introduction to the site was following an article in the Online section of the Guardian.

U178076 - I came to h2g2 before the BBC and before Alabaster (Nov 1999), after
having spent some time lurking about in the forums of the official DNA website (you know, www.douglasadams.com) and there were a couple of people there that said they'd been to this site
and liked it alot, and eventually I decided to come here, signed up, and have been a part of it ever
since.

U47285 - I saw an interview with the great man himself on the box. It must have been in the early(ish) days; I don't think it was Tomorrows World though, probably a daytime TV sort of thing. I think I rushed straight over to the computer and logged on.

I was a great fan of the guide already. The band I played in while it was doing its first outing in the UK in the early 80's would have a "Hitch Hiker's" break in the middle of rehersals. I also remember listening to it on tape in my mates car, driving South from the far North of Scotland, on leave from the Air Force.

U24 - I was hanging out over at Starship Titanic and the Douglas Adams DNA website, when I was sent an email. It was weird, it said that I wasn't to reply and that it had been sent by mistake by Ford Prefect. It linked to the animations created by TDV. I checked them out, and registered (this is apparently how I got my really low user number U15551 - was allocated to me before h2g2 started). The day h2g2 began I was sent another email, and Shim came online at DNA and started dropping hints about going over to check out the next project. I went over, and found a practically empty h2g2, and started going round 'slamming the doors and checking out the corridors'!

Jim was online and said that DNA was on Tomorrow's World that night launching the site, so I decided I'd better write some stuff so that there was *something* in the site that they could quote, Jim had said that the first people registered would get a copy of the Photo Illustrated Guide. So I wrote some stuff; ironing, penises and medical students were mentioned. Douglas read out one of my postings on Tomorrow's World, I won a book - there's a photo of Douglas holding it someone on site - and it all started from there!

U96736 - Like many I first heard about the place when it was launched on Tomorrows World back in April '99. However I didn't join up then, my brother did but soon lost interest (the fool!).

I completely forgot about the place until I started University the following September; I was translating some computer reference material from German to English when I stumbled across a link from AltaVista's BabelFish translator. The rest is of course history.

Incidentally, since then I've resurrected my little brother's page, which is now home to a beany duck with purple rainhat, wellies and a cult following

U188060 - I bought a book called 'The Pocket Essentials Guide to the Hitch Hikers Guide'
There was a list of websites on the back page, so I went to the nearest computer, and the rest, they say, is history...

U144111 - I remember quite clearly how it all started... I bought a package of seeds when I was in France, and when I got home, I realized I couldn't make heads or tails of the instructions so I used the Altavista translate page. There I noticed something new - Altavista was using the Babel ! There was a link which took me to the story of the Babel (which I already knew about, having read the Hitchhiker's Guide at a young age; I just wanted to see who had done it), and the story happened to be on this place called h2g2. To make a long story shorter, I found the Pokemon League site (which no longer exists) and decided to join. And here I am!

U192113 - I read the 1st three (and then the fourth) books in the trilogy as and when they came out; since then at roughly 5 year intervals, I have re-read them. Once, back in the days before programmable anything, I took my radio/cassette player to work every Tuesday and Thursday so that I could tape the series whilst I was working.

Then the Meaning of Liff came out, and within a matter of weeks I was transformed into something akin to an evangelist! I bullied every likely fan into buying a copy and it worked! To this day, there is a mad gang of us (predominantly ex pat poms as we are called here) who litter our already messy dialogues with Liffisms.

But since Dirk Gently, nothing much in the way of DNA... until last week, when I was using alta vista's babelfish to translate some French into English, and when I was done, I saw a link to "where it all began" or something similar, so of course, I clicked!

The weird thing is that even thoough I found out about babel fish about 3 years ago, I never even thought that there would be a site like this... earth is cool, but not that cool??? How glad I am to be wrong! hootoo is sssooooo hoopy!

U65771 - Me, like Peta, got an email asking me to join... it came out of the blue after me registered my copy of Starship Titanic, the game. Me must have got it about the same time as Peta, but for some reason didn't join up... can't remember why... then me received another email... same one me thinks.. asking me again... and this time me did... ~grin~

So there you have it... Starship Titanic got me here. ~Grin~

U191682 - My being here was the result of far too much surfing at two am in the morning... and now I can't leave. There has to be a way out of here somewhere! *sob* help meeeeeeeee...

U190397 - A heart-warming story I know you'll all be pleased to hear. I was directed here by Douglas Adams' obituary.

I can't remember what paper it was in, but it mentioned him setting up an online Hitch-Hikers. Due to my love of obscure information, I signed up. The account stayed inactive for ages, because of other commitments, but I arrived with a bang and discovered how hoopy (not to mention weird) all the people were around here.

U40408 - my dear husband (fairly strange or NM whichever you prefer) spotted the site via our local newspaper and an article about it. He, being a huge fan, just had to check it out. After spending a couple of hours on the site he began insisting that I see what all the fuss was about. I really never did anything other than work on the computer so I stalled and hoped that after a while he'd give up and leave me be. He didn't. Finally, one day I gave in and took a look around. Even though I am not around as much now as it was back when the site was smaller and we were all acquainted (strange that at one time there wasn't a researcher who didn't know all the other researchers) I am still drawn back. So i guess you can blame my hubby for my being here

U178834 - I saw the entry about DNA's death in the BBC's Science and technology part. I got interested, looked around and was hooked.

Strangely enough I remembered having read h2g2, but I had dismissed it as too inconsistent to be good or funny.

U129960 - I got here from reading an article in the Guardian 'New Media' section. It was exams time (second year exams, I think) and I was looking for a way to avoid revision - h2g2 filled the spot perfectly! When exams finished, I had more time, so I wrote a few entries, chatted, and decided I liked the place. And, more importantly, the idea!

U166251 - I actually signed up pre-Rupert (or whatever you want to call it, back when it didn't say 'BBC' anywhere) because of DNA talking about it on The Big Breakfast. I browsed, read a couple of things, posted to a total of no conversations, and left for a year.

I came back due to having free internet access at college and a bit of spare time. It's a good thing the site knew my email address becasue I couldn't remember a password or anything. Then I spent some time wandering around in Alabaster (as you do, when you're really a newbie in your soul).

U183316 - I remember reading Hitchikers at school and liked it, but as I was going through a big Terry Pratchett stage I put it aside...for years. Far too long a time! Then after watching and listening the repeats on TV and radio last year, my interest came back. I got surfing round the BBC's Cult TV site and found my way here.