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

As you know I have been pushing for this for some time and I am glad something is on the move. I haven't had the time to do this much of late for variuos reasons.

I have asked Jim to make it possible to post to newbies - As at this time you cannot do this unless they have written an intro to their pages. I get quite frustrated visiting pages and wasting my time because I am unable to post to them and rarley return again cos of the time it takes to log down their page numbers.

In the Intro email they are sent, newbies should be made aware of the importance of writing an intro even if it is just one word saying 'Hi'.

Off my hobbie horse, carry on with the good work
Veg

Hehehe, that's exactly what I suggested too, Vegiman

We can't say "hi" properly, when we can't post. And after all, what would be nicer than to recieve a personal welcome, right? Mind you, there are still people under the sub-100 numbers without a proper intro. It's impossible to get in touch with them

Festival (ACE?)

I should imagine the low numbers are there to be allocated to new staff members of TDV.

Great minds think alike.
veg

They do indeed.

Some of the numbers I meant, *do* have names attached to them, however... I'm not sure what that does to your theory

Maybe on the registration page you should write: "If you want to be welcomed by an h2g2 member, write an introduction for your page. We cannot reply to your home page unless you have a personalized intro," since the newbies may only glance over their introduction e-mail.

That might be an idea... but how many people simply glance over the home-page as well? I hardly ever even SEE that page, for example.

On the other hand, if the system were altered just enough to allow anyone to post even on a page without an intro, the problem would be solved without having to rely on users creating an intro

And the registration page is only seen ONCE by most users... They forget what happens there as soon as possible... It's just a necessary pain in the butt, which you try to get past as soon as possible, when regging... ))

We would do this if we could - at the moment we *can't*. We can't - if it were a simple fix we would do it tomorrow. It is a major rehash of the entire database/site set-up.

Having said that it is going to be done - but not right now - it will be part of one of the *major* site upgrades in the future.

Great idea. This is certainly something that we can do. I will get onto it right now...

Peta

TDV have got everything under 10,000. We intend to grow!!

Most of the staff have numbers under 100 - but not all of them.

And why so many? There aren't that much TDV-staff actually USING those numbers, are there? And if they do, most of them keep a low profile by NOT doing something with their intro-page... That way they seem like a very unfriendly bunch "we don't wanna mingle with the filth that visits our site..."

I'm happy that you're much different from that, Peta!

I expected as much. I guess that it works a bit like this:

When you enter the system, you get a researcher number, but it isn't linked to ANY article. The fact that no article is written yet, triggers the message that "unfortunately, this researcher has not found the time to...". Only as soon as the researcher does so, a NEW article will be created, which's number will then be entered into the database as being the HOME for that person.

I could think of one way to change that, but that would be in the registration-system. As soon as the person logs on using the link from his email, the system WRITES that first page, containing the text that is currently used as a default-message, and links it to the user immediately. THAT would solve the problem! However, if this behaviour could be built-in? I don't know...

Otherwise, the ACEs will just have to wait for the next major upgrade to take care of this

No there are only about 25 people here. They had to leave room for growth though.

Being quiet - they have to get on with all the work, whilst *I* get to come out and play.

Some people miss out on all the fun!

Growth: 10.000 numbers being reserved for growth, even if only 25 are currently needed? That's a lot of growth... TDV was building this system to last several millenia?

Peta playing: would that indicate that you're the lowest lifeform in the office?

just popping my head out into the wild to say hello...
us staff members do speak now and then
(p.s. hidden agena = voting loosely for my suggestion
for sub-com-eds... Friendly Mattresses! you know it makes
sense...)

anyway, hugs to all our adorable users and sorry my nose
is burrowed inside a bucket of C++ or I would be frolicking
with you all I promise...

Oscar

"Worse things happen in C you know..."

Hi Oscar!

Nice to meet you

About the voting... you best do that in http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=25486&thread=27541

"C++" U later

Hey Oscar!
Please enter something on your homepage U800 so we can stop by and say hello properly!
How do you like it at h2g2 Towers so far? Is Peta pushing you and Kim around since she's no longer low man on the seniority totem pole?

Looking forward to seeing you around! Now go type something, even if it's just "Hi!".

Ghehehehe, are you so desperate to score a "hit", Jimi?

Nah!
I'd just like to see h2g2 staffers have something on their pages...

Yer right, that's what I would like to... I mean, if *staff-mebers* of all people don't do that, then how can we ever expect *users* to see the importance, eh?