Old Welcome Page
Created | Updated Jan 6, 2005
Thanks for registering as an h2g2 Researcher! We hope you have as much fun as the tens of thousands of other Researchers you'll meet on site.
You're probably wondering what you can do now that you're registered - in short, the answer is 'loads', and below we've described a few things you can do straight away. You can come back to this page at any time by following the link from the front page (in the 'If You're New, Start Here' section).
Your Personal Space
Now that you're a full-blooded Researcher, the most important page you have is your Personal Space - you can go to your Personal Space at any time by clicking on the 'My Space' button on every page.
The first thing we recommend you do is to write an Introduction for your Space, because without an Introduction, other Researchers can't visit your Space and talk to you. You can create your Introduction by clicking on the 'Edit Page' button on your Space, and simply typing a few words. If you do this, then you can expect a personal visit from one of the Aces, the team of volunteers who greet new Researchers to the site.
Your Preferences
Clicking the 'Preferences' button will take you to your personal preferences. The most important changes for new Researchers are:
Change your Nickname: This is the name you're know by on site, and it's initially set to 'Researcher XXXXXX', where 'XXXXXX' is your user number. We highly recommend you change it to something more individual.
Skin: If you like, you can completely change the way h2g2 looks to you (though the information shown is the same). You can do this by changing the 'Skin' preference. The default skin is 'Brunel', but you can also change to 'Alabaster' and 'Classic Goo':
The 'Preferences' page is also where you can change your email address, enter your real name (if you like), and change your password, among others.
The Aces and Gurus
The Aces are volunteers who are here to help new Researchers to get the most from h2g2. If you're having problems or you're just looking for more chat about h2g2 and what you can do here, then they can help you.
If your questions are more involved, then go along to the Feedback Forum, where the Gurus (another group of volunteers) will try to answer any questions you have. You can go there at any time by clicking the 'Feedback' button on every page.
Contributing to the Guide
If you're interested in contributing to the Guide, make sure you keep your eyes on the Talking About the Guide and Contributing to the Guide sections on the front page. This is where you can get involved in helping to compile this week's topic or this week's talking point, can find links to our Writing Guidelines, can get stuck into Peer Review, and plenty of other activities.
Now that you're a Researcher, you can get involved in anything you like!
A Big Thank-you
We'd just like to say a big thanks for registering, and a hearty welcome to h2g2. We hope you have as much fun hanging out here as we have creating it. Share and Enjoy!
(You might also like to check out the welcome message from our founder, Douglas Adams.)
