Random Ramblings: Retrospection
Created | Updated Dec 20, 2010
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
[...]
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
It's been a very eventful year, not just for me, but for The Post and for all of h2g2.
Thirteen months ago, Rich unexpectedly retired as the Post Editor, so I took over. So far, so good. However, there was the Post 10th Birthday Issue to prepare with just three weeks to go, as well as the Christmas Issue – and we had only gone back to weekly issues recently. That was quite a blow and I wasn't too happy about it at first, but with hindsight, it was probably good that we were all just too busy to be able to sit down and mourn the loss of our charismatic editor.
A few weeks before, the community had got an Advanced Warning of a New Sign-in System; but more changes were ahead. A New Member of Staff, Zelmo Zale (aka Chris) was announced and welcomed. A little later, we were told about the upcoming change in Display names in BBC iD and h2g2. The effect of this was, that we can't have any special characters in our tag lines any more, and the whole tag is reduced to 30 characters in total. There's still hope that we'll get the possibility to have our h2g2 specific tag lines back – if only on h2g2 itself.
The transfer of our accounts to BBCiD went as expected: mostly without problems, but when there was a problem, it was serious. Several people nearly lost their accounts due to transfer problems but managed to access them after all, with the help of the eds. Others were not so lucky and had to create new accounts. Now you could think it's no big deal, since one account is as good as the next, but for many Researchers their account and PS feels like home, and having to start out with a new account is like having moved to another town.
Meanwhile, the eds were very busy. There were various announcements about the upgrading to BBCid and news about our nicknames, and in April this year, there was news about the redesign of the site and an announcement about Volunteers Needed For User Testing. Various Researchers went to London to have a look at the redesigned site.
Over at the Post Office, there were changes, too. In February, Malabarista left the team, due to lack of time and internet connection. A week later, Terran left for similar reasons. Eyjafjallajökull kept Beatrice and myself (as well as pretty much the rest of the world) on our toes, since we wanted to fly to the h2g2 London Meet in May.
It wasn't all bad, though. Dmitri joined the team in time to help prepare h2g2's 11th Birthday Issue and has been working very hard for the money he doesn't earn here ever since.
While Sam and Chris were slaving away at preparing the launch of the refreshed h2g2, we at the Post had to wave goodbye to yet another friend: KB left the team to focus on more important real life matters. However, during all these changes, the Post never missed to publish a new issue each Monday. Thanks to Dmitri, we could offer you a variety of writing challenges which went down well with our contributors. We were delighted to welcome various new contributors, some of which were even rewarded the Post Reporter Badge. However, two former contributors and friends sadly passed and we had to say our goodbyes to T.B. Falsename and Terri, who died within just one year, T.B. in September 2009, and Terri in September this year. Other h2g2 and Post friends lost loved ones, too. Our love and thoughts go out to all of you who had this happen.
On 11th November, we were treated to the h2g2 Read Only Beta. As you can guess, this didn't meet with unreserved praise from everybody. I was dismayed to find that the Post Front Page link won't be there any more, but Sam assured me that we'll frequently get the far more prominent large box on the new Front Page. Sam and Chris designed a new Post Icon, too. We'll soon get a version without the shadow, which those of you who took the time to comment preferred to the current version. Unsurprisingly, it's not a priority for the eds, there are lots of much more important things to fix for the full launch. I'm happy to wait, it's not on my list of priorities, either – I'd much prefer if something was done about the severe moderating of articles. Unfortunately, the list of words which are now deemed offensive has grown exorbitantly, so we stared at a hidden article more than just a few times. True, all those articles came back after they had been looked at by some moderator, but it happened so frequently that it was a great nuisance. It didn't make our work any easier, since we had to go through the whole article meticulously and try to find out just which word had triggered the filter. I usually had to ask a native speaker for help, since I am not knowledgeable as far as slang meanings of normal words are concerned.
Although no articles have triggered the filter recently1, we at the Post Office have still been frantically busy: this time with preparing two special issues for you these past few weeks: our Birthday Issue and the current Christmas Special. It is a little unfortunate that the two important dates are only two weeks apart – and during a season when everybody is usually very busy in real life, too. However, if I look at the results it is well worth all the additional work.
And so the circle is closed, and all I can say is that I wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2011!
