h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Askh2g2 forum keeps growing. At the last check of thread numbers the new fix for digibox users needs to be:

F19585?show=70

That's <./>/dna/h2g2/plain/F19585?show=70</.> for non-plain skin users who want to try it anyway.

In addition I'm trying an experiment with sorting the Askh2g2 threads. At the moment the categories are:

U239980 = New Unsorted (ie subscribed to the forum)
U239981 = Games (eg word games)
U239983 = Philosophy, Religion & Politics
U239984 = Music, Film & TV
U239985 = Sport
U239986 = Chat (weather and ?)
U239987 = General Questions (eg site related)
U239988 = Science & Technology

If anyone wants to make suggestions for adding/changing categories, now would probably be a good time before I move too many threads. I'm being quite generous with science and technology at the moment, having allowed in deodorant for trainers I felt obliged to add the coat-hangers and socks in washing machines issues. Note that a thread can go in more than one category if that seems like a good idea. Also threads can be subscribed from more places than Askh2g2. I think perhaps there should be a Silly & Weird category for nighthoover, sporks, hoo-henge stones and the No No No threads.

I'm not sure how long this will last but I thought it was worth a try. The weekend site inaccessibility problems delayed implementation a bit.

This seems to be a massive undertaking. I just wondered if you'd be adding threads that are inaccessible to digibox users, such as thingite parade and such.
That would take away the lottery of the box crashing on some threads.

I've not had any problems with the last link yet: F19585?show=100 but its nice to know you're on top of it.

Is "thingite parade" the same thing as "no no no"? It isn't one I know but if it is on Askh2g2 I'm slowly working my way backwards through the list and can look for it specially.

That 100 version of the Askh2g2 forum should last you for ages. The 70 one is merely the current optimised version, ie will give near to the minimum number of links for the next few weeks. I lost the thread where I showed the calculation before and thought I might as well start a new one here with an appropriate subject title.

NB Anything which requires a special link can't be merely subscribed. I worked out a similar optimised version for the 3n thread and posted it where people were complaining about it. Perhaps that (and the same sort of thing for any other similar threads) needs to be posted here too.

OK I've found it and added it under Chat (U239986) as there's no separate weirdness section as such. It isn't long enough to need a special link yet.

Not very long I know but with all the smileys/links it boots the box from the first page.

Have you plans to link all the pages to each other and maybe add a MP link to the top of each page.

Better stop before I give you more to do.

OK, for less posts at a time try <./>T278681?show=10</.> or <./>T278681?show=10&latest=1</.>

It's now about a month into the Askh2g2 experiment. I started off with a few of the existing threads in each category but mostly they currently contain new ones caught by U239980. The sorted pages may be useful in deciding whether any new official categories might be a good idea and whether the quality of Askh2g2 really has gone down (eg too high a proportion of chat) as previously claimed. Bear in mind though that the sorting was based on my interpretation of the threads rather than that of people starting/joining them.

035 U239981 = Games (eg word games)
061 U239983 = Philosophy, Religion & Politics
055 U239984 = Music, Film & TV + added books
013 U239985 = Sport
118 U239986 = Chat (weather and ?)
143 U239987 = General Questions (eg site related)
078 U239988 = Science & Technology

Total sorted = 503

Chat is about 23% of that total. Games is surprisingly (to me) low at about 7% and sport was even less! The debate/argument opinion type threads came to about 12%. General questions (at approx 28%) would be expected to be large since it includes all things which were genuine problems to the person asking but didn't fit the categories I thought might be needed. However, a lot of those threads were site related and probably should have gone to the feedback/help type pages. The don't panic button and subsequent pages may not be welcoming enough.

On the off-chance anyone cares, here are the stats after the second month (and an SSO service outage!):

046 U239981 = Games (eg word games)
125 U239983 = Philosophy, Religion & Politics
102 U239984 = Music, Film & TV + added books
021 U239985 = Sport
209 U239986 = Chat (weather and ?)
245 U239987 = General Questions (eg site related)
139 U239988 = Science & Technology

Total sorted = 883

I am surprised by how few sport-related questions there are. The games must be mostly a few long-running ones. Debate is hardly dead at 14% of the total (though I'm not guaranteeing quality!) and is ahead of media related conversations at under 12%.

Unsurprisingly SSO caused a fair few threads but general questions contains a lot of stuff about the site (online eyes, smileys, pictures, links) which are somehow ending up here rather than being directed at Gurus (or even ACEs). Help and Feedback may not be welcoming enough or perhaps the ACEs need to do a better marketing job in pointing new users at the best places to look up site related information. Meanwhile I'm considering separating h2g2/dna queries into their own ID.

At approx 24% chat comes in only a little below general questions 28% share. Science and technology seems to have a healthy 16% approx but of course a lot of this is still computer related and some of it is not very scientific either.

I'm still considering whether to give the IDs PS pages. I thought it would happen anyway with SSO, but that decision was apparently reversed at the last minute. On the "pro" side there is the utility of linking the pages together. On the "con" side there is the danger of people posting on the pages instead of on Askh2g2 and I'm not sure the staff and other researchers would be happy about that.

It may be time to wind-up this experiment, given that the digibox users are largely restricted to using PCs to access h2g2 now like the rest of us.

The stats are:

072 U239981 = Games (eg word games)
286 U239983 = Philosophy, Religion & Politics
229 U239984 = Music, Film, TV & books
037 U239985 = Sport
515 U239986 = Chat (weather and ?)
544 U239987 = General Questions (eg site related)
320 U239988 = Science & Technology

Total sorted = 2003

Games are still very much restricted to a few popular long-running threads at less than 4%. Sport is less than 2% but then BBCi has other areas for that.

The various media and literature themes make up 11% while debate is still at 14% (and I would say the quality had gone up a little - possibly due to a more sober mood in general).

Science and tech (lots of computer problems) is still at about 16%. The chat share has grown to nearly 26% while general questions, including h2g2 related ones, have fallen a little to about 27%.

The repetitive nature of questions about h2g2 would indicate that the ACE/Guru and FAQ schemes are failing somehow - but that could be anything from people not being given enough of the right sort of information (by ACEs or FAQs) in the first place to not understanding it or not even bothering to read it.