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

A conglomeration of what look like possibly helpful entries/forums/sites. We need to find out which of them are still functional, and exactly what they all are, and then to organize them into easy-to-sort-through categories.
Please feel free to make your own suggestions for helpful additions of Categories or links, in this forum.

Possible Categories:
-Tourism Information
-Famous People on H2G2
-Assistance (Tourist/Language/H2G2 User)
-Shopping
-Travel Agency
-Language Centers
-The Tour
-Job Opportunities
-Registration/Use of H2G2
-Making Contact

Possible Links:
The Polyglot Plaza (language forum)
-A271379
German speakers' page
-A292448
Aroma Cafe
-A202924
Italian Restaurant
-A291458
Frink's Drinks
-A81398
dating
-A312184
counselling
-A252217
Community Events
-A435791
The H2G2 Post
-U54963
-A451388
University of Life
-C573
Missing People
-A284807
Forum and Firkin
-A187508
job vacancies
-A431335
H2G2 Mobile Service
-OnTheMove
World of H2G2 (make friends...)
-C572
the beach
-A208676
clubbing on H2G2
-A270325
Help files
-C550
Douglas Adams' message
-Welcome-DNA
Find out where researchers are from
-A304066
Ask the Community
-Askh2g2
How do I... ?
-HowDoI
Welcome message
-Welcome
Don't Panic FAQ
-DontPanicFAQ
Search H2G2
-Search
Browse H2G2 Entries
-Browse
Life
-C72
The Universe
-C73
Everything
-C74
The Observatory
-A222913
Interplanetary Society
-A190180
Spaces centers
-A285653
-A302608
Entry Writing Guidelines
-Writing-Guidelines
H2G2 Graphics Archive
-C809
GuideML Clinic
-GuideML-Clinic
Don't Panic Tour
-A317459
Best Web Sites
-A255250
Community Groups
-A105355
Guardian Angels
-A300943

Other ideas:
-link to The Alabaster House
-link to Pages for the Gurus, Ministers, Muses, Keepers, Guardian Angels, Editors, Staff, Aces, Douglas Adams
-link to altavista.com, Douglas Adams site (if he has one??), other language speakers' pages
-pages for specific Terran regions - so that people can get together or find people who live where they are or where they're going...

This post has been removed.

ahh, yes! In my intent to link to altavista, I meant the babelfish specifically, actually, but when i was thinking them over i forgot that it has it's own special url as well.

You know, it's interesting what the babelfish translator can do. I once had a document - Mozart's Requiem - in Latin, already translated into portuguese. I needed it in English and Spanish. The fish was mighty confused, but some of its confusions actually helped me understand the underlying meaning better!

As for the dropdown list, excellent idea. Thanks! Probably best for people who need help to avoid the 'middle-man' involved in going to the page... finding the list somewhere...

the quick-ref guide, yes, i was thinking it was possible, for a lot of these things, to just link to it, but there's another middle-man! The prime focus, i would like to be linguistic. Sort of like the difference between a tourist bureau (the quick-ref) and an embassy.

~8~

It's fun to play with the Babelfish, if you've got nothing better to do. Give it a sentence, then translate to French, then German, then a whole bunch of other languages, then back to English, and see what you are left with.

Even if you duplicate some of the Quick Reference links (and if you didn't, you'd have a pretty short list ), you should still include a link to it. The embassy would most certainly know where the tourist bureau is.

Do you want to add the Embassy to the foreign office at http://www.h2g2.com/A444827 ?

You don't have to, I realise that it's a completely different project to the presidential thing and the Alabaster House, but it fits the theme

Saint Dan

A question of etiquette/netiquette (of a sort) for you:

I would like the embassy to contain links to the "famous" and "helpful" people on H2G2. Do you think I should go ahead and just add, for instance, Mark's link, or would you suggest I go directly to him and ask?

~8~

This post has been removed.

Peregrin that's perfect!

I had a flag in mind originally, but now that I see the design, I much prefer it just as it is. Size, shape and colour are perfect, big and friendly. Thanks a lot. Does it need anything done to it or to be put anywhere (by the artist or the patron before I can put it on the page?

p.s.
I understand Tink's fear of the new smileys. The original ones have become a little frightening!

Thanks again,
Lady K
~8~

Ack! see what I mean! My smiley closing parenthesis just up and turned into a smiley face! Gonna have to follow Tinkerbell's example I guess and use spaces.
: )
~8~

It's fine where it is, just link to it. I can't remember whether it's transparent round the edges, if not then I'll change it so it looks good in Goo and Alabaster.

Glad to be of service

Perfect - it just adds a whole element of official comfort to the page!

The idea of helping people who aren't native English speakers are good. As you know (maybe), there is a nice German speaking group at h2g2. Trillian's child made a huge work, creating the GerManiaConnection at http://www.h2g2.com/A448328 . There you can find some useful links.

As for me: I'll be happy to help people with language problems; I can deal quite well with German and of course with Polish, as it's my native one

So let me know, what can I do in particular.

Kasia

Kasia,

I wanted your opinion about somehting for the embassy. I am thinking of making it a new user so that all 'employees' could make changes and maintenance and that. I would have to do this before too many people on h2g2 link to it.

I was thinking of making a new email address that everyone can use, where employees would have their addresses in the address list. Anyone who has news about the embassy or whatever that everyone else needs to know, could send it out to all the other embassy people. That email address would be the one the Embassy user is attached to.

Well, Kumetanzuka, the idea of this mailing list is very good. Probably you need then a person, who will coordinate will the news and put them onto this Embassy page.

There is a possibility of this egroups thing, but don't ask me details, cause I don't know them. But methinks, Dragonfly or Galaxy Babe could help you with this.